# Giles Palmer

> Giles Palmer is the British founder and former CEO of Brandwatch, the consumer intelligence company acquired by Cision for $450 million in 2021. A Durham physics graduate and qualified Chartered Accountant, he subsequently served as Cision’s Chief Growth Officer and Cint’s CEO before being appointed CEO of supply chain traceability company Circulor in May 2025.

- **Role:** Chief Executive Officer at Circulor
- **Organizations:** Brandwatch, Runtime Collective, Cision, Cint, Circulor, ALT21, Whatagraph, HappySignals, Leaf
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** BSc in Physics, Durham University
- **Known for:** Founded and led Brandwatch through its 2021 acquisition by Cision for $450 million., Built Brandwatch to more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, according to the 2021 Unscalable interview biography., Led Brandwatch’s merger with Crimson Hexagon.

## Career timeline

- **1999** — Worked on 5Senses, an unsuccessful perfume and cosmetics interactive-TV retail startup; met Steve Crossan.
- **2000** — Co-founded software agency Runtime Collective.
- **2005** — Released Magpie Search and Alert, a search product aimed at law firms and banks.
- **2006** — Founded Brandwatch.
- **2007** — Launched Brandwatch’s first SaaS product in August.
- **2015** — Announced a $33 million Series C led by Partech Ventures; Brandwatch had 330 employees.
- **2017** — Brandwatch acquired BuzzSumo and expanded its Twitter data partnership.
- **2018** — Announced Brandwatch’s merger with Crimson Hexagon.
- **2021** — Brandwatch was acquired by Cision for $450 million; became Cision’s Chief Growth Officer.
- **2023** — Became Cint CEO on 1 April.
- **2024** — Left the Cint CEO role on 2 September; joined ALT21’s board later that year.
- **2025** — Appointed Circulor CEO on 29 May.
- **2026** — Circulor announced its 2.0 platform with customers already live on 29 July.

## Achievements

- Founded and led Brandwatch through its 2021 acquisition by Cision for $450 million.
- Built Brandwatch to more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, according to the 2021 Unscalable interview biography.
- Led Brandwatch’s merger with Crimson Hexagon.
- Led Cint during the development of its platform integration plan and initial customer migration.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Circulor announced its 2.0 platform, naming Ford Otosan, Poweroad, Lucid, Aston Martin and Vale among customers already operating on it.
- **2025-05** — Circulor appointed Palmer CEO, with founder Doug Johnson-Poensgen moving to President.
- **2024-12** — ALT21 publicly welcomed Palmer as a non-executive director.
- **2024-09** — Patrick Comer replaced Palmer as Cint CEO on 2 September.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giles-palmer/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/joodoo9
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joodoo9/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joodoo9

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/giles-palmer
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21