After a fifth year of sustained growth at the Yorkshire & East office of integrated communications agency Social, the award-winning team has announced two promotions and three new starters at its base in Leeds.
With a strong background in PR and journalism, Rosie Wilson was welcomed to Social earlier in the year as an Account Manager. University of Leeds graduate Laaraib Khan joined the team in September as an Account Executive, and Laura Pinder has recently been appointed as Account Director, working predominantly within stakeholder relations and community consultation. The agency now employs 10 people in its Leeds office.
Following continued success within the established team, Emily McGowan-Phoenix who joined as an Account Executive in 2019, has been promoted to Account Manager alongside Jared Kerr who joined the business in early 2020. The promotions further strengthen the team and will support a sustained influx of new business wins.
The Yorkshire and East office provides services in PR, marketing, strategy, campaigns and consultation for a diverse range of clients including Caddick Developments, NP11, Extra MSA Group and The Piece Hall. During the last year, Social has been appointed to a raft of new projects and retained clients, including Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and property companies Rushbond, HBD and Big Red Construction. In addition, the agency has also cemented its reputation within public sector communications, winning new commissions from Bradford Council, Kirklees Council, North Lincs Council and Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP.
Pete Wrathmell, Managing Director of the Leeds office, said: “As we continue to increase our turnover and profitability, we want to ensure that we have the best people in our business to service our fantastic range of clients. Welcoming Laura, Rosie and Laaraib during the course of 2021 ensures that we can continue to provide a first-class service and develop new offers around strategy, marketing and campaigns. Meanwhile, Jared and Emily’s promotions recognise their huge contributions to our success during the last two years and they have my sincere thanks for all they have achieved during the most challenging of times.
“We have a clear growth strategy in place and a strong senior team which will help us to deliver upon ambitious targets over the next three years. Our client roster is in its healthiest ever position and we’re now working with major businesses and organisations in this region and beyond. Our mix of creativity and politically astute communications has allowed us to work on some landmark projects around themes such as skills, the green agenda and levelling-up. We are looking to the future with great confidence in Yorkshire and more broadly across the Social group.”
Social was founded in Manchester in 2013 and set up its second base in Leeds in 2016. Since then, the business has recorded continuous year-on-year growth. In 2021, Social’s Yorkshire & East team celebrated big wins at the CIPR awards, taking home 3 gold and 1 silver for their work during 2019-2021.