LONDON — Specialist technology agency Missive has appointed Giles Peddy, the former senior vice president for EMEA at Lewis, as its first CEO.

Peddy, who left Lewis in October after seven years, joins Missive’s co-founders Nicola Koronka and Emma Ross on the board, as the 19-strong agency gears up for its next phase of growth. Managing partners Koronka and Ross now move into the roles of chief client officer and chief people officer, respectively.

At Lewis, Peddy was responsible for the strategic and operational development of the agency’s EMEA region, and was the global client relationship lead for a number of international brands. Before joining Lewis, Peddy had spent seven years at Hotwire, latterly as deputy managing director, and also spent six years at Golin.

Missive, which was founded in 2014, has clients across the fintech, telecoms, health and enterprise technology sectors, including O2, Santander, PayU and Finastra.

The new leadership appointment follows the return of Ross to the business, following her diagnosis of primary bone cancer in 2019. Ross was formerly head of PR and social media at O2 and has spearheaded Missive’s progressive culture.

Koronka, who previously ran the banking and finance practice at Hotwire, told PRovoke Media: “Over the past six years Emma and I have shared the CEO responsibilities of the business with the support of an amazing team. She’s doing really well and is cancer-free, but it was life changing for her, and she’s my best friend, so it was a tough time. We’ve spent much of this year thinking about what we’ve built and where we see this going.

“I think the combination of Emma’s cancer and the pandemic made us less cautious: we went through both traumas successfully, we’ve won a lot of business in the past six months and it has made us look to the future and understand with more clarity of what we’ve got in the brand. We’re at the coming of age turning point where investing in super-senior hire in this way honours the future of the business.”

On Peddy’s hire, Koronka said: “Giles is well known to both of us: I worked closely with him at Hotwire and his pedigree and background is perfect, we’re dedicated to technology and we’re doubling down on that specialism, and he brings so much knowledge of enterprise software and large technology briefs. We have so much confidence in his ability to uphold our founding principles around being a great place to work and nurture amazing PR professionals, and where we do business-impactful work.”

Ross added: “I am incredibly proud of what Missive has achieved in a few short years, despite unforeseen challenges. Missive makes a positive impact every day to the lives of its clients and staff and it has even more to offer in the future. With the addition of Giles to our talented team, our ambitions to help redefine the industry are without limit.”