LONDON — Corporate and creative consultancy Blurred has hired its latest sustainability and purpose expert, bringing Jeremy Cohen on board as a partner.

Cohen (pictured, right) brings more than 20 years of experience to Blurred’s environmental, social, governance and purpose (ESGP) offering, latterly as group head of responsible business at National Grid, one of the world’s largest investor-owned energy companies, where he was responsible for delivering the company’s global sustainability transformation.

Before joining National Grid in 2019, Cohen was the managing director of Publicis sustainability strategy, corporate purpose and communications specialist SalterBaxter, MSL’s sister agency. Before that he was global chair of Edelman’s business and social purpose practice, as well as being the global client relationship manager for Unilever, the agency’s biggest client.

Cohen is the second partner Blurred – named as PRovoke Media’s best new global agency for 2020 – has hired since launching late 2018: in January 2020 it hired Matt Peacock, formally group corporate affairs director of Vodafone.

The hire follows Phillipa Chikwedze (pictured, left) joining Blurred as a consultant in January from an in-house communications role at Discovery Inc.

Last week Blurred formally launched its Assess, Address & Activate (AAA) ESGP consulting framework, as well as a new Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) preparedness offer. Cohen will support in rolling these out to Blurred’s portfolio of clients including The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola European Partners, BT Group and Lidl.

Nik Govier, CEO and founder of Blurred, said: “Jeremy joins us at a time of extraordinary growth, contributing an invaluable set of skills and experience which are perfectly suited to our unique ESGP positioning. We believe that before a company can prove that it does good – purpose – it first needs to prove that it does no harm: ESG. Jeremy has spent his career helping businesses be better businesses, and like the rest of us at Blurred, this is fully reflected in his personal values.”

Cohen added: “We’ve already moved beyond the tipping point where sustainability and purpose have become integrated with business strategy. As business looks to demonstrate that it can be a force for good in the economic reconstruction in the next phase of the pandemic, the need for an integrated strategic approach, coupled with an authentic creative expression, will be critical.”