Consultancy and venture studio Shadowboxer has bolstered its strategy and design team with five new hires.
Julie Kerckhof (previously Accenture Strategy and Publicis Sapient) joins as strategy director, Stuart Aitken (previously Clemenger BBDO) joins as senior strategist and Kate Gilchrist (previously Clemenger BBDO) joins as strategist.
The three new strategists are joined by design directors Matthew Dodos and Anja Hoffmann, who both previously had design leadership positions at Isobar.
The new recruits join the eight-month-old consultancy amidst a growth spurt to support an expanding portfolio of clients and new ventures. The business now counts ten full-time employees with another five expected in the next month, and another ten before the end of winter.
Stephen Graham, Shadowboxer partner, said “it’s wonderful to bring in people like Julie, Stuart, Kate, Anja and Matt. The calibre of thinking that stretches from business to brand to product in the new team is exactly what we want to wrap around our client’s businesses, whether in a consulting context or building new ventures.”
“What’s been central to our success to date has been the re-bundling of previously siloed skillsets, like business strategy and brand strategy, or brand design and user experience, into a small, senior team for clients. Putting the best thinkers and makers together, from a mix of backgrounds, makes the whole far larger than the sum of parts.”
Anja Hoffmann, Shadowboxer’s new design director added, “design is a holistic discipline but so many businesses have chunked it up to fit specific processes and it’s gone too far. I’m relishing being able to consider and design holistically across brand, experience and service now I’m at Shadowboxer. Any designers out there who don’t want to be boxxed in should get in touch – we’re growing and we want that mindset.”
Julie Kerckhof, Shadowboxer’s new strategy director, also said, “it’s great to be in an environment like Shadowboxer that encourages the overlap of strategy and design disciplines, embraces ambiguity and facilitates holistic business thinking – it’s real commercial creativity and a rare thing to find in our industry. I’m thrilled to be joining such an amazing team where everyone’s so smart, but always ready to pick up a shovel.”
L-R: Aitken, Gilchrist, Kerckhof, Hoffmann, Dodos
