Engine UK Appoints William Lidstone as Chief Growth Officer

ENGINE UK has appointed William Lidstone as chief growth officer, to form part of the executive management line-up which welcomed a raft of impressive new hires throughout 2019. William joins from Publicis Groupe where he was global client lead on McDonalds across 29 markets and has previously held senior growth roles at both Razorfish and AKQA.

With over 25 years’ experience in the industry, William has a reputation for driving value and creative excellence for some of the world’s most well-known brands and agencies, by connecting a consultative approach with the ever-evolving possibilities in the creative and technology space. Passionate about upskilling the next generation of leaders in the industry, William is currently Chair of the IPA Leadership Course.

In his role leading growth in the UK, William will focus on driving ENGINE’s new business strategy for the agency’s three core pillars – Creative, Transformation and Communications, as well as organic growth development across a growing client portfolio. He will report into UK CEO Jim Moffatt and joins the Executive Team which includes Ete Davies – CEO, Creative; Emma Robertson – CEO, Transformation; Alex Bigg – CEO, communications.

The appointment follows the addition of a list of new accounts to the agency in 2019 including Jägermeister, Eurostar, Cazoo, KP Snacks, Syngenta and Hello Fresh.

During his time at Publicis Groupe, William was responsible for heading up one of the agency’s largest global accounts, McDonalds, where he oversaw a team of 200+, across 29 markets. Under his leadership over almost three years, the account has shown significant year-on-year growth and won over 50 major creative and strategic awards in the past 12 months alone.

Previously, William was executive vice president of International and Global CMO at Razorfish (now part of Publicis Sapient). During his eight-year tenure within Publicis Groupe, he was responsible for accelerating growth in key markets and driving client development on major accounts, including: DHL, Mercedes-Benz, Nike and UBS.

Prior to Razorfish/Publicis Groupe, William led global New Business at AKQA during its strongest growth period. Account wins during his time included global AOR for Cola-Cola, Fiat, McLaren, Nike, and Xbox. He started his career at Accenture.

William will commence his role in March.

Will Lidstone, incoming chief growth officer, UK said: “ENGINE’s diverse energy, independent thinking and impressive cohort presents an opportunity to join an agency setup to deliver a unique offering for current and prospective clients, I’m hugely excited to join the executive team in writing the next chapter for ENGINE in 2020.”

Jim Moffatt, CEO ENGINE Europe said: “William is one of the few people who can move effortlessly from consultancy, to technology, to integrated advertising and on to PR and communications, and as such he is uniquely placed to help drive growth for us across the full stack of ENGINE’s offering. He is a born innovator and happens to be a great guy to boot. We can’t wait to have him on board.’