Russ Lidstone

Group CEO

Having started his career at Coca-Cola, Russ has over twenty-five years’ experience in marketing communications. He held strategy and leadership roles in blue chip agencies including McCann, Butterfield Day, HHCL, Lowe, and JWT.

Russ was CEO of Havas Worldwide for six years. Russ was recently awarded ‘Advocate of the Year’ at the Women in Marketing awards. He is a member of The Marketing Group of Great Britain; Fellow of the RSA; EMBA advisor for Oxford Said Business School; Tech London Advocate and former NED of Basketball England. Russ is Chair of Trustees for Creative Mentor Network.

Mark Gass

Executive Creative Director

As Executive Creative Director for the group, Mark is responsible for the overall direction of all creative departments across the group.

Having spent over twenty years in advertising, creating international campaigns for the likes of Nivea as an Executive Creative Director at TBWA, he now sits comfortably at the evolving intersection where brand and experiential meet.

An advocate for our ‘Create Unforgettable’ ethos, Mark helps the team deliver impactful and engaging experiences for clients across the globe. Experiences that help shape opinions, move people and make things happen.

David Sharrock

COO

David trained as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young. He spent four years as a management consultant, helping clients in the creative sector improve their financial performance. David spent ten years at the Guardian Media Group and later led its sale to Trinity Mirror.

David left his role as Managing Director of MEN Media in 2012 to be our CFO. The following year he became COO. He’s also non-executive Director of Sharp Futures, a social enterprise for creative and digital talent in Manchester.

Lauren Ince

Head of Client Service

Lauren works across all our brands, overseeing our growing client service offering and helping to deliver outstanding brand thinking and creative solutions for clients.

Lauren has held several senior roles in advertising, including Global Business Director on Unilever at Mullen Lowe, Group Account Director at WCRS, European MD of Arnold Worldwide and Head of Account Management at VCCP. Most recently, she was the Managing Director at film content agency, Evidently.

Jill English

Head of People

Since she joined us in January 2002, Jill has moved up through various people-focused roles. She’s inspired by the fast-paced environment and unique culture we have at TCEG. Responsible for all things HR within the agency, she ensures that we attract, retain and develop the best people in the sector.

Tim Collett

Head of Live Events

Tim has twenty years’ experience in live events and has been leading the ever-growing live events team since 2017.

As a producer he’s led the creation and delivery of brand experiences, from product launches, to roadshows, conferences and meetings. Tim has also been instrumental in coordinating some of the UK’s largest public events and spectacles – including the Mayor of London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations and the recent London Car Free Day with TfL.

Greg Kiner

Head of Live (US)

Based in Philadelphia, Greg joined WRG in 2019, bringing over 16 years of experience with him. In this role, he is focused on managing the US team while working toward WRG’s goal of growing its live event offering to both new and existing clients. With an impressive list of national and international productions to his credit, Greg says he is honored to partner with people who share his passion for live events and production. When he isn’t on a plane traveling for work, Greg is often on one traveling for fun.

Mark Jackson

Head of Environments

Mark trained as an industrial designer and spent three years designing commercial interiors before arriving in the live events industry.

Mark has overseen many of our largest international projects for clients such as AstraZeneca, Google, Roche and Ricoh. He now heads up a talented and expanding team of environment project managers and designers. Under his stewardship, it’s seen a period of rapid growth globally, particularly in North America.

Helen Davis

Head of Environments US

Helen heads up our US Environments team as they create memorable exhibition experiences and bespoke installations for our international clients.

Helen works alongside Mark Jackson, Head of Environments in the UK, to lead the US team and support The Creative Engagement Group in growing their exhibitions offering to clients, both new and existing.

Helen has a wealth of experience, having managed a wide portfolio of brands, including Merck, Novo Nordisk and Yahoo over the past 15 years.

Sam Myers

Head of Film

Formerly Deputy Head of Film at Havas, Sam ran production companies both here and overseas – most recently creating a high-profile advertising campaign for Lexus. Now he leads an integrated team of filmmakers and animators.

Sam is a craftsman and a collaborator – with a truly innovative mindset to solving a film brief. He heads up the film departments across our geographies.

Ryan Wells

Head of Film US

Ryan has over 20 years experience in video and film production having delivered a wide variety of programs across digital and broadcast platforms. He oversees our US production team delivering engaging live, digital and on-demand content.

He began his career working on feature films in New York City before switching over to broadcast and commercial content for clients such as HBO, MTV, Nickelodeon, AMC and Children’s Television Workshop. Ryan then worked as a Producer/Director for Healthology (a division of NBC Universal) creating online health and medical content for such companies as Novartis, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Spencer Conway

Head of Digital & Immersive

With twenty years' experience as a digital designer and creative, Spencer has worked for large advertising agencies, broadcast indies and boutique digital specialists on campaigns and projects for the likes of HBO, Audi, Chanel, GSK, and the BBC.

Spencer now leads our digital team across the group, guiding the creative direction of his blended team, which includes strategists, designers, developers, project managers, and 3D artists. The team works on a diverse set of projects covering mobile, web, voice, VR, AR and live interactive experiences.

Gemma Lowry

Head of Hybrid & Virtual Events

Gemma has over a decade of live event and communication expertise over various industries and channels.

As Head of Hybrid & Virtual Events she specialises in engaging virtual audiences to ensure the delivery of an interactive and memorable message. Day to day Gemma aligns closely with our Live, Film, Communications, and Digital teams to ensure seamless integration of these fundamental disciplines and to deliver a holistic and thought through programme.

Time spent away from the world of virtual events is all about life’s little luxuries…good food, exploring the world and a decent northern cuppa!

Chi Siroko

Head of Logistics

Chi has 14 years’ logistics experience working with and managing large project teams; achieving seamless results – whether instructing coachloads of priests during the papal visits, or handling VIP meetings amid the buzz of the London 2012 Olympics.

Including events of 3000+ attendees, Chi’s led some of our biggest projects across a wide breadth of sectors and venues. She enjoys using her experience of complex international events to support and develop the talent of the live logistics team.

Lucy Hillard

Head of Logistics

A positive, solution-focused leader of the logistics team, Lucy has over 12 years’ experience in the industry.

Her approach to project management is led by innovation and she is passionate in encouraging the team in finding opportunities to create fresh ways of delivering comms, catering, badging, apps and our own internal processes. Lucy has developed a bit of a speciality working in Asia, executing a large-scale Incentive in Tokyo and high end C-Suite programmes in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong to name a few.

Anna Thomson

Head of Healthcare Logistics

Jointly manages a large logistics team split across 3 offices, dedicated to Healthcare Events.

Anna started her career at a corporate entertainment company before joining WRG in 2006. Since joining, Anna has successfully delivered a wide variety of quality projects all over the world and of varying size and complexity, including delivering the Senior Leaders Meeting for a key account every year for 12 years. Anna now concentrates on managing the team and client relationships to ensure we continue to deliver to the high standards we are known for.

Graeme Beavers

VP, North America

Graeme has been with WRG for nine years, following successful careers in sales and customer marketing at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and general management with the National Health Service in the UK.

As a client director in London, Graeme used deep healthcare insight to build a number of successful client accounts and some outstanding campaigns and events. Having moved to Philadelphia early 2014 to set up WRG’s presence in North America, he quickly established the office as a key part of the global network.

When not hard at work, Graeme can be found running the streets of Philly.

Melanie Ingram

Congress Project Director

Mel manages the day-to-day operations of our congress team. She carries her experience in logistics and client understanding into each new job.

Mel brings twelve years of experience in logistics – focusing on congress logistics –six years at WRG and a further six in her previous agency, all with the same client.

Built on the strong foundation of the client relationship, Mel has delivered a wide scope of work, including ad boards, investigator meetings, and congresses… all spanning over five continents.

In her downtime, Mel’s guilty pleasure is watching Emmerdale.

Tim Williams

Operations Director

Since joining the group nearly 15 years ago, Tim has worked his way through the business to his current position.

As Director of Operations, he has direct responsibility for all activity happening across the business and feeds into our strategic decision-making.

Sarah Grubb

Operations Director US

As a leader in the events industry for over 15 years, Sarah has experience managing a wide variety of events and productions focusing on operations, logistics, production budgeting and scheduling.

Sarah has worked on amazing projects including Olympic Ceremonies, sporting events and Commonwealth Games in a range of exciting destinations around the world. These projects involved her running large teams of people to execute technically challenging elements of the project under extreme pressure with large budgets.

Alex Wood

Head of Safety & Risk

Alex graduated with Honours in Events Management. In his first job out of university he became event Health & Safety Advisor at Jack Morton where he worked on a range of corporate events as well as public spectacles including the London New Year’s Eve Celebrations and the Commonwealth Games.

During his eleven years in events Health & Safety, Alex has ensured the safe delivery of projects for some of Europe’s biggest companies, such as Shell, JLR, and Canon and is experienced in overseeing and implementing a Health & Safety Management systems for projects across the globe.

Andrew Gilkerson

Procurement Director

Andrew has been in the events industry for over twenty years, in both agency and corporate roles. As well as operational and account management positions, Andrew spent ten years with global Pharmaceutical, Pfizer. He led the Meetings and Congress Procurement category for Europe, designing and delivering a regional strategic meetings management programme.

As Procurement Director for The Creative Engagement Group, he uses his corporate procurement background to create value for clients in all areas of the client-supplier relationship.

Charlotte Smithson

Creative Director

Charlotte thrives on the breadth of creative work we cover at WRG, and directs projects across the creative departments at our Manchester office.

She enjoys the challenge of changing behaviours in a memorable way, and the scope of creative possibilities in experiential marketing.

Charlotte plays a key role in our healthcare offering – yet in her 7 years at WRG, she has worked for a huge range of clients in various industries, and has spent time working in all of our global offices.

A little known fact about Charlotte is that she has the greenest balcony in Manchester.

Alex McDonnell

Creative Director

Alex specialises in creative content, bringing a wealth of experience in developing compelling stories, films and campaigns.

He was previously creative director and head of film for the London content agency Evidently, where clients included Dove, Lifebuoy, Unilever, Sanofi Genzyme and Battersea Power Station.

Paul Fidler

Creative Director

Paul's passion lies in telling captivating stories through authentic brand experiences.

Previously, Paul was Associate Creative Director at brand experience agency Wasserman, where he worked on clients including Nike, Bacardi, Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire, Martini, Vodafone, Sky, HP and Formula One. He has also worked at agencies FKC and Crossing O’Sullivan, where he headed up creative on many well known brands including Virgin Media, Papa John’s, Old Spice, M&S, Panasonic, Technics and TATA Steel, making broadcast, commercial and corporate content for clients.

Chris Brogan

Digital Creative Director

Chris has spent the majority of his career in advertising with McCann-Erickson, BJL and BDH/TBWA, designing campaigns for major brands in both traditional and digital advertising.

With a passion for design and innovation, Chris spends his time looking for insight into digital trends and exploring what is possible.

Chris enjoys the outdoors where you can find him hill walking, mountain biking – and above all other pursuits – snowboarding.

Jessica Meek

Creative Director US

Jessica leads the creative team in our Philadelphia office. Prior to joining The Creative Engagement Group she was Creative Director for the San Francisco office of London agency Instinctif Partners, where she built creative engagement programs, events and experiences.

Jessica has worked both in-house as well as agency-side with a mix of B2B and B2C companies including Salesforce, Tesla, eBay, Google, and Specialized Bicycles. Her former agencies include George P Johnson, Liquid Agency (formerly Neutron), and Jack Morton Worldwide.

Hannah Parkinson

Marketing Manager

As marketing manager, Hannah coordinates the communication strategy for WRG and The Creative Engagement Group, to drive their digital presence.

Working across the agency and its network to maintain a consistent marketing approach, Hannah promotes our marketing stories through internal and external communications channels.

She brings with her ten years’ experience as account manager at WRG – handling multiple communications projects for a range of clients.

Hannah has a real passion for food and spends most of her spare time cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Emma Wood

Marketing Manager

Emma has been with WRG since 2017. She started off as a Senior Account Manager on our largest healthcare account before moving into marketing at the start of 2019. Emma brings with her extensive knowledge from her previous role in managing a wide variety of projects across all of our service lines.

Emma works across WRG and all of our brands with the rest of the marketing team coordinating the internal and external communication strategy.

Prior to working at The Creative Engagement Group Emma held roles in the Tech industry in Business Development and Account Management working with blue chip clients.

Kath Goodson

Client Engagement Director

Based in our London office, Kath joined WRG over 5 years ago, bringing with her a wealth of experience from a number of sectors to lead some of our global accounts.

Always putting clients’ best interests at the forefront of her mind, she is steadfastly committed to helping them achieve their objectives. She ensures consistency across all aspects of events and is devout in her pursuit of value for the client’s money, qualities that have made her a valued contact for clients including Nissan and HPE.

A lover of photography, Kath harbours an ambition to one day enter the World Photography awards.

Sallie Coventry

Client Engagement Director

Sallie leads the account strategy for our biggest pharmaceutical client internationally, looking for opportunities across The Creative Engagement Group.

She has worked in the events industry for 20 years – most of her career she has spent working for healthcare clients, which she finds massively rewarding. For Sallie, there is no better buzz than delighting clients with a brilliant idea. Sallie brings with her experience in logistics management, account direction, and delivering trade shows as portfolio lead for Reed Exhibitions.

Beyond her work life, Sallie enjoys hiking, swimming, and cooking. But not all at the same time.

Ben Atherton

Client Engagement Director

Ben joined WRG after 14 years at Nortel, Cisco and EY where he held a variety of senior marketing roles with a focus on global events and sponsorship.

  He led customer projects at the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games and whilst at EY, worked with the UK’s leading entrepreneurial growth businesses.  He’s married with two children and reluctantly accepts he will never make it as a professional footballer.

Richard McAleavy

Client Engagement Director

Based at our Manchester office, Richard works with our global healthcare clients to develop communications that grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Richard has nearly 20 years working with Pharma, Consumer Healthcare and Medical Device clients, and is particularly passionate about using digital solutions to make a real world difference to patients. Outside of the office, he enjoys falling off his mountain bike and kick-boxing.

Justin Wright

Client Engagement Director

Justin is the bridge between clients & the TCEG team. Justin has always been client facing, with over 12 years’ experience in various roles ranging from managing large sponsorship packages for military contractors to heading up the Sales & Marketing Division for one of the big four accountancy firms in the North West.

His positive mentality, analytical approach and ability to understand client needs has resulted in strong working relationships that deliver exceptional results. Justin has a relentless enthusiasm for all aspects in life, enjoying socialising with both clients and friends - bringing excitement to any project.

Kristen Erlandsson

Client Engagement Director

Kristen is responsible for client engagement on a range of WRG’s global healthcare, technology and retail clients.

Kristen joined us after 6 years in the corporate pharmaceutical world, bringing her expertise in strategic change management and corporate communications. She looks after key accounts in healthcare, tech and retail.

Outside of work, Kristen enjoys interior design, hosting dinner parties, and skiing.