Speed Announces New Management Line-up
Speed Communications has announced the appointment of Kate Bosomworth and Scott McLean as joint managing directors of the agency, following the decision by Stephen Waddington and Steve Earl to leave the company to pursue individual opportunities.
Bosomworth was the former managing director of KTB PR and joined Speed at the beginning of July as part of the acquisition of her agency and will continue to drive the growth of the Speed’s consumer practice.
The acquisition of KTB PR was the first step towards the agency’s objective of becoming a top 20 multi-sector PR agency by 2015 and further acquisitions to support this growth objective will be considered. They will build on Speed’s existing capabilities of delivering integrated digital, media and event public relations for corporate, consumer and technology clients.
The new leadership team takes the reins as Speed enters a new phase of accelerated growth supported by Writtle Holdings, the media and marketing services group. Writtle Holdings acquired the Loewy Group in July 2011 to create a combined group of 18 companies with revenues of around £100million.
McLean commented: ‘Speed is on a growth trajectory that will be delivered both through acquisition and delivering ground-breaking PR programmes for our clients that redefine the role of digital within audience engagement. It has been a pleasure working with Steve Earl and Stephen Waddington over the past year and helping them to position us so firmly for the next phase of the agency.’
Bosomworth added: ‘Merging KTB into Speed was based around a shared vision of how to deliver commercially valuable PR programmes for clients through effective audience engagement and passionate delivery. Our offering and the quality of the team here at Speed has never been stronger which means we are strongly positioned for the future.’
Will Whitehorn, Speed’s chairman, concluded: ‘I am really looking forward to working closely with Kate, Scott and the team at Speed. Kate and Scott have superb track records of committed and inspiring leadership, growing great businesses and delivering exceptional PR campaigns. Building this agency into a Top 20 UK PR agency is firmly within our grasp.’
Previously deputy managing director and responsible for building Speed’s corporate offering, Scott will also use his experience in the technology sector to support Speed’s sizeable technology practice. As part of these management changes, John Brown (head of consumer Tech & Gaming) and Matina Macintyre (head of B2B) have also been appointed to the board of Speed, joining Ruth Jones, head of Speed’s Technology practice, and Nicola Harrison, head of Speed’s Ventures Practice.
