• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 30, 2015

Guardian News & Media, publisher of The Guardian newspaper, has named Rachel Israel to the position of executive vice president of Guardian Labs U.S., its branded content division on this side of the Atlantic. Israel previously served as executive director of strategic planning at Mindshare. Before that, she held a number of senior planning roles at MEC.

In her new role, Israel will be responsible for expanding the Guardian Labs business by cultivating relationships with advertising clients and brands. Guardian Labs boasts a staff of over 130, including creatives, strategists, designers, video and content specialists.

The Guardian launched the branded content division in the U.K. last year with a campaign for Unilever, highlighting the consumer packaged goods giant’s commitment to a environmentally friendly, sustainable business model.

Israel’s appointment is the latest in a series of strategic moves from the British-based global newspaper, which has been pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy in the U.S.

In October, The Guardian unveiled a redesign for the newspaper’s Web site, including a new high-profile advertising placement that allows advertisers to dominate the Web page without interrupting visitors’ consumption of the news. The new look centers on a “container” format that groups different categories of content into a series of horizontal sections that cross the entire page.

The new ad placement will take advantage of the new format by introducing cross-screen ads under the heading of each new section and across other natural break points, so readers can be exposed to multiple ads from a single advertiser as they scroll down the page.

More recently, it revealed that the new Web site is part of a larger overhaul as it moves towards an advertising sales metric based on time spent by readers, rather than simple impressions and clicks.

It also created a new audience analytics platform that is accessible to every Guardian employee on the editorial as well as business side, which should allow reporters and advertisers alike to target their audiences more precisely.