LONDON — Grayling has made three promotions to its senior global team, after reinstating its global leadership roles last year.

Nathan Kemp (pictured, centre), previously head of Ignite, Grayling’s planning and creative function, has been elevated to global head of creative and planning, to lead a growing global team of creatives and strategists. Before joining Grayling in 2018, Kemp led the creative services team at M&C Saatchi Public Relations (now M&C Saatchi Talk).

Kat McGettigan (left), former head of Grayling Manchester and head of consumer at Grayling and M&C Saatchi Public Relations, moves into the newly-created role of global head of growth, leading a new function to drive multi-market business and client growth.

In addition, Ben Petter (right), previously head of Central & Eastern Europe, has been promoted to COO, Europe, working across the European network of 26 offices.

The moves follow UK & Europe chief executive Sarah Scholefield becoming the first global CEO role for five years last September, while UK & Europe chair Richard Jukes became the agency’s first global chairman.

Other recent senior hires include former Sky News editor and Weber Shandwick head of public affairs Joey Jones, who joined as senior corporate affairs counsel last November from Cicero.

At the same time, Grayling has made its biggest-ever commitment to agency-wide cultural initiatives, making an investment it describes as “significant” to ensure Grayling staff worldwide feel more connected to each other and that best practice and local understanding is shared across markets.

Its new programmes include giving all employees free access to mental health and wellbeing training as well as the opportunity to speak to mental health first aiders; a global training programme giving teams access to more than 100 courses to promote creativity, inclusion and cultural understanding; a global network of more than 75 creative champions; rolling out its UK diversity and inclusion taskforce globally; and a global Grayling podcast.

Scholefield said: “Creating a senior central team, focused on our global ambition, gives us the opportunity to bring our teams, our clients, our ways of working and our agency culture closer together. I am delighted that Nathan, Ben and Kat are moving into these roles as they all bring a wealth of experience and share big ambitions to win more global clients; grow our existing business and support in creating a truly global Grayling culture.

“Ensuring the well-being of our colleagues around the world has been my number one priority over the last 12 months.  We are continuing to make significant investment to ensure teams are well supported through training programmes and mental health support, as well as creating opportunities for us all to learn and share knowledge, no matter where we are in the world.”