I believe strongly that leadership is, in part, about building capacity for an organisation to function effectively in the long term. That’s why one of my goals over the past 12 months has been to ensure that I could move on from my current role at Deeson with the agency well set up for future success.

With the appointment of Sarah Harris as Managing Director at Deeson and a great leadership team in place, I’m confident that now is the right time for my next challenge.

I’ve learnt a lot over the past six years at Deeson. It’s been a brilliant experience and I’ve really valued the close collaboration with fellow director Tim Deeson and other colleagues over that time.

I know Tim took a big decision to trust me to take on the leadership of his family business in 2016 and I’ve admired the professionalism he’s shown and wise counsel he’s given me through the highs and lows of agency life over the past four years as Managing Director.

Having worked with a brilliant team at Deeson and achieved so much commercially and organisationally in the agency, I wasn’t ready to move away from the team completely. But I also knew that I needed to gain new experiences to ensure I continued to develop professionally.

With Deeson becoming part of The Panoply in late 2018, I wanted to be able to take on new responsibilities within the group. So as Sarah takes on the day-to-day leadership of the agency, I’m moving to a new role as CEO at Deeson. I’ll be responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of the agency during the next phase of its development, supporting Sarah and the leadership team in their work to continue delivering excellent work for our clients.

Alongside this, I’m really pleased to be working closely again with Tim and Dr Ronald Ashri, co-founders of leading conversational AI consultancy Greenshoot Labs, in a new role as Chief Growth Officer. I’ll be working to continue the rapid growth of the business, helping organisations understand how they can incorporate conversational AI into their product and service strategies.

This move also means I’ll be able to work with founders Neal Ghandi and Olly Rigby on the development of The Panoply over the next year. I’ll be helping group companies share back office services more effectively and ensuring the group has effective marketing and branding for the next stage in its progression as a purpose-driven design, technology, innovation and transformation business.

I’m really excited about the diverse challenges that I’ll be tackling over the next few months and being part of the next chapter in the development of The Panoply, Deeson and Greenshoot Labs. Lots to learn, new people to collaborate with and plenty of new experiences – that’s all I can ask for in my new roles in 2020.