Richard Kirk Joins New Zenith UK Management Line Up

Today, Richard Kirk joins Zenith UK as managing partner (strategy & data). Kirk, who arrives from Amazon, will work closely alongside with managing partners Sannah Rogers and Jon Stevens and head of investment David Mulrenan. The agency is led by CEO Natalie Cummins.

Richard Kirk is a classic Zenith ‘boomerang.’ He spent the earlier part of his career leading the development of Zenith’s SEO offering, before moving into the strategy team, where he led global and UK strategy across key accounts. Kirk will be responsible for raising the bar on strategic thinking on all accounts and accelerating the development and adoption of new Zenith services and products.

The new management team will continue to drive the agency’s success in client retention, agency growth and industry-leading data tools.   

Rogers and Stevens were both promoted to managing partner at the beginning of the year. Kirk’s appointment is the latest development in the UK management team set-up.

CEO of Zenith UK, Natalie Cummins, said: “I am thrilled to welcome back Rich Kirk’s strategic mind and practical understanding of the digital transformation space. Jon and Sannah are also first class communications leaders. Having worked in new business, client management and strategy, this team have a unique combination of skills. I’m really excited about what we can achieve.”

Managing partner (strategy & data), Zenith UK, Richard Kirk, said: “It's fantastic to return to Zenith at such an exciting time for the agency - new home, new leadership and with a consistent focus on delivering great returns for our clients. Working at Amazon has been an incredible learning experience, and I hope I can introduce some of the best parts of their ‘peculiar’ approach to doing business into the agency environment. Given the talent, we have at Zenith and the positivity resulting from the recent move, I'm looking forward to helping the team become more effective at delivering growth for our clients than ever before.”

Sannah Rogers joined the agency in 2001 as a graduate, and since then has headed up digital, and more recently, business development within Zenith. As managing partner, Rogers will lead a number of high profile accounts, drive operational effectiveness across the agency, creating greater synergies between planning and activation - particularly in digital performance - and continue to drive forward the agency’s unique culture.

Jon Stevens has been at Publicis Media and Zenith for 12 years. Previously global head of business development, Stevens built a consolidated new business team to work across all PM agencies and previously was a business director in Zenith Worldwide. Now as managing partner, Stevens will lead the UK planning team across all clients, with special responsibility across Zenith’s key clients.

David Mulrenan has spent the last 20 years at Zenith, and has sat on the leadership team for the last 4 years. During this time, Mulrenan has been responsible for leading media owner negotiations that maximise both value and effectiveness for our clients. In his current role as Head of Investment, he leads the AV, Display and Programmatic teams delivering connected investment strategies and their execution.