Movers and Groovers : Creative agency ZAK has underlined growth plans for 2016 by doubling its Board

Head of Creative Production, Head of Planning and Client Director join the team to support expansion.

Creative agency ZAK has underlined growth plans for 2016 by doubling its Board. Hannah Partridge joins as Client Director and Jonathan Aldis arrives as Head of Creative Production.

The hirings follow the recent appointment of Susan Poole from Havas Worldwide London as Head of Planning and the promotion of Ben Carter to Finance Director.

ZAK had a successful 2015, winning more work with long-term client New Balance to incorporate the Lifestyle and Football brands. ZAK also scooped The Wellcome Trust, BBC, PF Flyers and Vodafone Afrimax and is targeting further success this year to continue their 40% like for like growth.

The independent agency recently rebranded, developing from a group of three specialist agencies – drink, wolfpack and bambino – into one team, one agency, with one goal, a move that has been well received by clients.

ZAK’s Board is now eight strong as the new appointments join CEO Joanna Davies, CCO Matt Bennett, CFO Alison Springham, and Client Director Tom Ellis Jones.

Poole will develop and oversee strategy across all of ZAK’s clients. Most recently at Havas, she has held roles at a variety of agencies including a seven-year stint at DLKW Lowe where she worked with the likes of thetrainline.com and E.ON, and before that John Lewis and Peroni. Poole is passionate about keeping strategy straightforward – implementing effective changes and maintaining consistency from brief to execution to fuel a brand’s campaign.

Aldis, who will be spearheading the creative production team at ZAK, joins from Cake London, where he worked with clients including Xbox, Virgin Atlantic and Sony Europe. He will work closely with CEO Joanna Davies to support and grow the in-house creative and production team and to ensure that the game-changing creative and efficient production of that creative, is consistently released throughout the year.

Partridge has moved back to the UK from Canada where she worked for digital agency Plank and joins the team as Client Director. Previously she held positions such as Client Services Director for Lowe Open and BD Network where she delivered integrated brand experience campaigns across a portfolio of brands including The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo, Burger King and Unilever.

Joanna Davies, CEO of ZAK, said: “As part of our ambitious growth plans, we’ve added some of the industry’s brightest minds to the team as we seek to strengthen our talent base significantly over the coming months.

Bringing Susan, Jonathan and Hannah on board and promoting Ben, is a crucial step in ZAK’s exciting evolution. We’re confident that with their support we can continue to deliver our proposition of ‘Agents of Change’, building on the agency’s energy and passion to step-change our clients’ brands while continuing to grow at an ambitious pace.”