Leeds marketing agency Perfect Storm strengthens senior team with appointment of new Head of Insights and CX
Full-service Leeds marketing agency Perfect Storm has appointed Holly Crosland to the newly-created position of Head of Insights and CX. Crosland has previously worked with Perfect Storm as a freelance consultant, with the agency’s model comprising a core team of senior specialists, supported by a partner network of experts brought in to assist on specific projects.
Having spent the last eight years in dedicated strategic UX and CX roles, both agency-side and in-house at Asda, Crosland will work with brands to understand what is already known about their customers, identifying blind spots and gaps in knowledge around customer needs and behaviours.
Upskilling the team and growing the agency’s network of expert partners will also be a key part of her role. Crosland brings extensive experience in harnessing customer-first thinking, which she is capable of applying to both channel activation and wider organisational change.
Sebastian Gundel appointed CEO of Kingfisher following extensive selection process
Kingfisher plc has announced the appointment of Sebastian Gundel as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 February 2027. Gundel will join Kingfisher’s Board of Directors on the same date.
Gundel will bring more than two decades of leadership experience in the home improvement sector to the role, including most recently as the Chief Executive Officer at European home improvement retailer OBI, a role he held for more than four years, leading the company’s evolution from traditional retail to a digitally enabled, customer-centric, omnichannel business.
Prior to becoming CEO, Gundel served as Chief Customer & Digital Officer, leading OBI’s omnichannel transformation and digital innovation agenda. His responsibilities spanned loyalty, marketplaces and ecosystem development, as well as the expansion of trade propositions. Earlier in his career, he held operational leadership positions and a range of strategic roles across marketing, customer proposition and corporate development. Gundel is also a Board member at EDRA/GHIN, the European DIY Retail Association / Global Home Improvement Network, a position he has held since 2022.
Thierry Garnier will remain in role until 31 December 2026, when he will step down as CEO and Board member. Bhavesh Mistry, CFO, will serve as interim CEO during the month of January to support a smooth transition.
W Communcations appoints Carla Gordon as Director of Fashion
Communications agency W has hired Carla Gordon to the role of Director of Fashion, putting her at the head of one of its rapidly-expanding specialist teams.
Gordon joins W from fashion PR and brand building agency K&H Comms, where she held the role of Managing Director.She has previously held roles at PUMA and Exposure as well as Purple PR and Eco Age, working directly with Olivia Firth, and led campaigns for brands including Byredo, DKNY, Moncler, MCM and Triumph Lingerie. She brings full-funnel marketing expertise across brand strategy, campaign development, digital and social, influencer and talent, PR, events, and integrated activations to the role.
Sitting within W’s Culture & Fashion division, led by Board Director Gabby Griffin, Gordon’s remit will be to further build W’s fashion proposition, client portfolio and team, while also bringing her operational excellence to W’s Bond Street showroom.
W recently appointed luxury and hotel expert Ally Weller to lead its Hospitality division, reporting to W Board Director Philippa Barker.
The Story Network launches Regional Growth Team
Strategic communications consultancy The Story Network has expanded its operations with the launch of a new Regional Growth Team, bringing together senior communications, public affairs and economic development specialists from across the country. The new Regional Growth Team will advise businesses, investors, public bodies and non-profit organisations on communications, government affairs, stakeholder engagement and economic development, with consultants based across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The team has been brought together by Alex Bigham, with new additions Ian Moss and Gill Morris, bringing experience spanning government, politics, the Civil Service, infrastructure, regulation, corporate communications and regional development. Jo Gibbons, Former Special Adviser to Tony Blair, remains as a founder of the Network while Ed Owen has taken up a role as interim CEO of the influential think tank ThinkLabour.
Bigham is a former Lambeth councillor, political adviser to the Labour Shadow Cabinet, and was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care during the pandemic. Moss is a former senior civil servant who has held roles at HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, DWP and Ministry of Justice, while Morris is a veteran public affairs leader and specialist in English devolution. She founded The Devo Agency, a lobbying, public affairs and communications agency focused on navigating devolution.
Mint Gecko announces expansion into Asia as Managing Director moves abroad
Marketing collective Mint Gecko has announced its expansion into Asia – following Managing Director Chloe Lillywhite’s decision to move there. The development marks an important milestone in the company’s international growth strategy; and unlike more conventional market entries, the expansion has required no substantial investment, lengthy regulatory negotiations or resource-intensive regional recruitment drive.
Mint Gecko has confirmed that its new Asian operation will offer the full range of marketing, PR, creative and strategic services available through its UK business, with the added benefit of round-the-clock international coverage – and the occasional challenge of establishing what time anyone is actually available for a meeting.
The expansion also reflects a central principle of the Mint Gecko Habitat: that talented, independent professionals should have the freedom to build successful careers around the lives they want to lead, rather than the other way around. The company has spent considerable time developing a model that gives experienced people the infrastructure, support and professional community to work on their own terms. In Lillywhite’s case, this has had the unintended – but commercially convenient – consequence of turning Mint Gecko into an increasingly multinational operation.
Alliant appoints Joseph Byrum as Chief Data and Engineering Officer
Consumer and marketing data specialists Alliant have announced that Joseph Byrum has joined the company as Chief Data and Engineering Officer. In this role, Byrum will lead Alliant’s data strategy, data science, and the engineering capabilities behind its technology.
Byrum brings more than two decades of experience across data science, technology, analytics, and AI, with senior leadership roles spanning biotech, asset management, and financial services. Most recently, he served as Chief Technology Officer at Consilience AI, and previously as Chief Data Scientist at Principal Financial Group, where he built enterprise AI capabilities for a global asset manager.
At Alliant, Byrum will lead continued modernization of the company’s technology stack and expand how Alliant applies AI and machine learning across its technology and engineering capabilities.
Alex Shifrin helms new North American hub for Superson
Helsinki-born agency Superson is launching Superson North America, a new arm for the business, with its first hub in Toronto.
As companies increasingly look across the Atlantic for new customers, markets and partnerships, they need creative capability that can help turn those commercial opportunities into action. Superson has dubbed this ‘Commercial Creativity’: applying strong creative and strategic thinking to the business opportunities that matter most.
Alex Shifrin will be at the helm of the new branch, joining the business in the role of President, North America. Shifrin brings more than 25 years of agency leadership across Europe and North America to the role, having founded TCF in Eastern Europe, later acquired by Publicis; led Saatchi & Saatchi in the region; and run LP/AD before transitioning to Grace. He has been working with clients such as Coca-Cola, HSBC, Pernod Ricard and Amdocs. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the Canadian Marketing Association and part of its Creativity Advisory Group.
Nexer Digital strengthens research and design teams with six new appointments
Human-centred design agency Nexer Digital has welcomed six new starters in a bid to strengthen its service design, user research and accessibility expertise.
Richard Telford, Trisha Mehta and Iestyn Haberfield join as senior service designers, alongside Andrew Wiggan as senior user researcher and Petra Eriksson as user researcher and accessibility consultant. Eva-Lena Hagqvist joins as a senior accessibility consultant.
Telford brings around 20 years’ experience in service design and innovation, including work with Livework, the Home Office and IKEA. Mehta joins from the Department for Education’s internal policy lab, where she applied design and research to education and skills policy challenges. Haberfield brings service design experience from Cable & Wireless, Vodafone Group and Companies House.
Wiggan will lead user research for Defra’s Common Business Capability programme, exploring how the department and its arm’s-length bodies can improve and standardise shared business processes. Based in Stockholm, Eriksson brings with her a decade of digital product experience, including user research roles at iZettle and PayPal. Eva-Lena Hagqvist, a senior accessibility consultant and advisor with related experience in health research and care delivery, also joins to cover the Gothenburg region and support Nexer’s key customer accounts.
M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment strengthens its creative talent set with promotion, new hires
M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment has promoted Creative Director Conall McAteer to the newly-created role of Executive Creative Director, UK. McAteer will lead the agency’s UK creative output, with a remit spanning existing client growth, new business and the continued development of its creative proposition.
He will also work closely with the agency’s international teams as M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment works to build a more connected global offering.
Alongside the promotion, McAteer has hired three new creatives: Solomon Bednall-Greaves, formerly of Dept; Hattie Abbott, most recently at Bulletproof; and Amy Ibukunoluwa Lewis, who has spent the last three years as a freelance creative and director.
Joining M+C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment from We Are Social in 2024, McAteer has played a central role in some of the agency’s most prominent work, leading creative work for adidas across football, Originals, running and hybrid training, as well as playing a key role in the agency’s global Betway win and the development of the Clubhouse creative platform.
