George P. Johnson Announces New Additions to Senior Leadership Team

Bankside-based experience marketing agency, George P. Johnson has today announced two new additions to the senior team – Trudy Hardingham and Elle Shoben.

GPJ’s new creative services director, Trudy, joins the agency after over a decade at FCB Inferno, where she held a number of senior leadership positions, most recently operations director. As GPJ continues to build its creative team, Trudy has been hired to lead, develop and motivate the diverse and often fast-moving department.

She’ll be working in tandem with GPJ’s creative leadership to support the ongoing growth of the agency’s creative line-up, as well as championing agency efficiency initiatives and partnering with client leads to unearth new creative opportunities.

Elle Shoben, GPJ’s new head of talent and culture, joins from not-for-profit Social Finance, where she was HR director, following nearly twenty years’ experience in corporate talent management across PwC, Reuters and Barclays Investment Bank. This new, board-level role reflects a strategic decision by the agency to invest in leadership to support the ongoing development of all staff members in a rapidly increasingly talent pool.

Elle will be responsible for the creation and roll-out of the agency’s talent strategy, as well as working with the leadership team to attract new hires from disciplines and industries where GPJ is seeing an ongoing appetite for brand experience.

Trudy and Elle follow Fran Elliott, who joined as the agency’s first head of integrated production from Momentum Worldwide, and Caroline Sparkes, GPJ’s head of growth. Caroline will drive continued growth across existing clients and new business, building on the last five years of positive momentum that has seen the business double in size.

Jason Megson, VP, managing director, GPJ UK and Nordics commented: “I was clear from the moment I first met Trudy that she was genuinely passionate about people, craft and great ideas, plus she has a can-do pragmatism that will have an immediate impact across the agency and with our clients. As for Elle, there has never been a better time for someone with her gravitas and experience to join GPJ. She brings PLC level know-how and strategy to our organisation’s most important asset, its people.”