Movers & Groovers / Underwired appoints John Thew as Managing Director

Underwired, the specialist CRM and Customer Engagement agency, founded by Felix Velarde and Jason Holland, has appointed John Thew as Managing Director.  http://www.underwired.com/

Thew started his career client-side at Reader’s Digest before spending five years at Wunderman, where he rose to become Planning Director for Ford as well as leading the agency team that delivered Ford’s first ever European websites across 22 markets. Thew then went on to become Managing Director at Agency.com, delivering similar success for Heineken, Intel, One2One (now T-Mobile) and many other clients.

Latterly he has been Managing Director at Flow Interactive, where he orchestrated the merger with Foolproof to form the largest UX agency in Europe and also at Further, the leading and multi-award winning search, content and social media marketing agency.

Underwired has seen spectacular growth in the past year, doubling last year’s turnover in the first six months of 2013. Notable client wins have seen the agency developing a portfolio of customer engagement websites for British Land and becoming lead digital agency for Travelodge. The agency’s other CRM and digital clients include Asics worldwide and Marks & Spencer. Thew has been brought in to take over as Managing Director from Felix Velarde, who now becomes CEO.

Felix Velarde (pictured) commented, “John is a fantastic addition to the Underwired team, following a year of stellar growth. His enormous experience will be a significant asset as we grow our client list – all highly commercial brands who demand tangible value creation”.

John Thew added, “I share Underwired’s passion for delivering exceptional results for clients and am delighted to join them at such an exciting time. I’m really looking forward to working with Underwired’s outstanding team”.

Underwired was a finalist at the Recommended Agency Register awards earlier this year and is based in the heart of Shoreditch, London.