PHD UK today announces that it has made two senior appointments as CEO Ali Reed nears the completion of a new-look UK leadership team.
Lucy Barbor has been appointed as chief strategy officer, whilst Kate Browne joins in the newly created role of chief transformation officer.
For Barbor, currently a global strategy partner at Carat, this move sees her returning to PHD having spent two years as a digital strategist at the agency between 2012 and 2014.
Barbor’s career began in digital. She previously held roles as head of digital at Carat UK, and director of brand media at Dunnhumby, before moving fully into strategy.
In her new role, she will have overall responsibility for PHD UK’s strategic output, with a specific focus on innovative business planning and the digital transformation of PHD’s strategic product.
Browne will join PHD from GroupM agency Essence where she is VP Business Operations, a role focused on driving agency programmes for operational excellence and revenue growth.
Her experience spans a variety of roles across Business Operations, Commercial and Digital, at Essence, Maxus and iLevel as well as a client role at Rail Europe.
At PHD, Browne will oversee PHD’s transformation agenda and will be responsible for improving operational efficiency through the agency. Browne will also lead a new Operations Hub within the agency. Barbor and Browne will both report to Reed and join the PHD Exco Leadership team. Joining dates for both are still yet to be agreed but both will join in 2022.
PHD UK CEO Ali Reed said “2021 has been a successful year for PHD but it’s incredibly important that we don’t rest on our laurels and we continue to push ourselves to deliver for our clients in digital and data as marketing’s role expands in response to COVID-19 and digital explosion of the consumer experience. Lucy and Kate’s arrival will keep us at the forefront of what is expected of a modern marketing services company and they will bring fresh, diverse, digital-first voices to our leadership team to make our strategy smarter and our agency fitter.”
Barbor said “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to move back to PHD. I look forward to working with Ali, Kate and the wider team to drive our capabilities forward and help clients make the leap into innovative new territories.”
Browne said “Within our industry, we are brilliant at creating new exciting solutions for our clients. I feel passionately that we should see that same level of innovation reflected in the way we approach our own business and I’m very much looking forward to bringing that perspective to PHD’s own transformation journey.”
Read the story here on Campaign.
