LONDON — New York technology specialist agency SourceCode Communications has appointed Stephen Waddington to its leadership team, as its first non-executive director.

Waddington will support SourceCode founders Greg Mondshein and Becky Honeyman to scale the agency – which has grown by 31% this year despite the pandemic – and look to expand into new markets.

His role also includes mentoring and recruiting talent. The agency currently has a team of 26 and is expected to grow to 30 by the end of this year, including the hire of its first head of digital, to be announced soon.

Honeyman told PRovoke Media: “Stephen and I have worked together and we knew there was an intellectual fit, but the impetus was SourceCode turning three years old and hitting an inflection point of rapid growth while maintaining profit margins.

"We’ve managed to navigate these past months, but we need to look at diversification of services and geographies, and needed someone to help us stress test some of our own preconceptions, add intellectual rigour to the planning and be a traditional advisor – as someone who has navigated fast agency growth – to help us plan the next three years.”

Waddington, who was chief engagement officer at Ketchum from 2012 to 2018, left his most recent role as MD of digital marketing agency Metia in June to set up Wadds Inc, advising marketing and PR agencies on growth and scaling. His other non-executive roles include Don’t Cry Wolf.

He told PRovoke Media: “These guys are flying. It’s a phenomenal business: they’ve reached $5 million in three years and they haven’t missed a beat in all this year’s craziness. They are also in an interesting position as independent with scale to now take on the big networks, as clients look for smart ideas, smart people and value.”

SourceCode was founded in 2017 by former Hotwire execs Mondshein and Honeyman with the stated goal of “injecting humanity back into technology brands”. Its B2B and B2C clients include Handshake, Everlast, Clio, Makespace and Trulioo.

In July this year, SourceCode founded the Diversity Marketing Consortium with three other agencies and Harlem Capital in a bid to tackle the lack of diversity in the public relations industry. The group has since expanded to include four additional agencies and is providing $3 million in pro bono marketing services to people of colour and women-led businesses in the next two years.