Carrie Rose has announced ambitious growth plans for creative agency Rise at Seven after becoming the 100% shareholder in a debt free buyout.
The agency was founded in 2019 by Ms Rose and Stephen Kenwright and now turns over £7m in revenue, having seen over 250% growth in 2021/22 across four offices in the UK, EU and US. As Mr Kenwright exits the business, Ms Rose will take full control of the group in the UK and US and has promoted Nick Hussey, the chief operations officer, to group managing director. She said the pair would be looking to grow the business further, potentially through mergers and acquisitions.
Ms Rose said: “The Rise at Seven journey has been incredible to date and I couldn’t have done it without Stephen’s brilliant counsel and support. He and I started this as friends and I’m proud to say we will remain exactly that. He has been the most incredible, calm and inspirational support.
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“He always dreamt of building one of the industry’s best creative agencies, and we did it. We did it together. I personally will miss working with him, as will all of the Rise team. He’ll always be part of the Rise family. Now we embark on a new challenge for true global domination. It requires a fresh way of thinking and commercial direction.
"Nick has been appointed managing director, after taking the reins of the business in the last 12 months and taking us to new levels. We are starting to attract more senior talent and brands, with lofty ambitions for global growth and it means the agency has made a number of changes in recent months to build a truly global agency capable of multimillion-pound accounts. Expect a lot more news to come over the next few months with new director hires and global account wins.”
Mr Kenwright said: “Rise at Seven is and always will be very close to my heart as I have been a part of this agency seeing it become a once-in-a-generation agency business and it is because of the people and the clients that make Rise unique. What we achieved in three years is nothing short of miraculous, being named Best Large Agency Globally at multiple industry leading awards including Search, PR, Content and Social but what the business needs now is a new direction to guide it through the next phase of its expansion plans.
“Appointing Nick as managing director allows me to pass the reins to one of the best agency operations persons in advertising I know, and allow him and Carrie to truly disrupt search and advertising. I wish Carrie all the luck in the world and I will continue cheering every win.”
The company has also appointed Kristal Ireland as executive director in charge of Rise’s strategic and search service offerings, and Will O’Hara who joins as digital strategy director.
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