Carat has rolled out its scholarship initiative to two new states, awarding the best young talent within the agency’s Brisbane and Sydney offices with three week’s work experience in an international Carat office.
Digital executive Kurt Sorensen won the title after two rounds of intense competition in Brisbane, with digital executive, Johanna Futcher taking out the competition in Sydney.
Carat Scholarship is open to entry to all business managers, executives and coordinators who have been with the agency for 12 months or more. Entrants are required to respond to a brief for a real client, with five finalists in each market selected to present to the leadership teams.
Simon Ryan, Carat CEO and scholarship judge said: “Fostering the development of our up and coming talent is critical to the ongoing success of our business. Kurt and Johanna did an amazing job and truly nailed their responses, meeting the key judging criteria. They now have a great opportunity to experience our business in another market, and share their learnings with the team on return.”
Gabriela Merrick, managing director Carat Brisbane said: “It’s exciting to be able to create this opportunity for our people. I know that we have a breadth of young talent in Brisbane and Sydney and they have certainly proven their abilities in what was a very tough competition.”
The Carat Scholarship launched in Australia this year, is an exciting initiative to develop and recognise rising young talent in the agency on a National level. The Melbourne winner, Sophie Swart travelled to New York in June.
Carat scholarship director and Carat’s head of vision and values, Adriana Colaneri said: “The Carat Scholarship provides a unique platform for our rising talent to share their creativity by responding to a live brief for one of our key clients. The international travel is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the Carat global network and bring learnings back to Australia, as well as facilitate their own personal development. We are very proud of the calibre and depth of talent that it has unearthed at Carat.”
Other finalists in Brisbane included Shane McAulay, Courtney McBryde, Matt Hamilton and Ashleigh Toeke, in Sydney, finalists were: Johanna Futcher, Marc Langenfeld, Sam Parrott, Penny Taylor and Eliza Breusch.
