LONDON — Technology specialist SourceCode Communications is making its first international expansion outside the US, hiring former Team Lewis, Missive and Hotwire leader Giles Peddy to head its new UK office.

Peddy was appointed as Missive’s first CEO in 2020, and left the firm earlier this year. He was previously at Team Lewis for seven years, latterly as EMEA SVP. Before joining Lewis, Peddy spent seven years at Hotwire, rising to deputy managing director, and also spent six years at Golin.

The UK office will follow SourceCode’s US model of working with technology, consumer and lifestyle brands on communications strategy and creative campaigns based on data and insights. The agency already has several enterprise technology clients in the UK.

Peddy will work closely with SourceCode co-founders Becky Honeyman and Greg Mondshein, who set up the agency in 2017. Honeyman worked with Peddy at Hotwire, where she was a director for nearly 10 years, while Mondshein was a vice president at Miami firm Max Borges agency for more than eight years and was also at Hotwire for 18 months before the duo set up SourceCode.

On the 34-strong agency’s UK expansion, Mondshein told PRovoke Media: “We’ve been thinking about diversifying for a while, vertically in terms of sectors and also in terms of geography. Considering Becky’s UK heritage, it has always been top of the list – our client roster is about 30% European or UK-based so it made sense, but we had to have the right person, and when we saw Giles was on the market we pounced.”

Honeyman added: “Giles and I worked together for quite a long time at Hotwire in the UK and we knew he had similar values when it comes to creative campaigns, measurement, KPIs and client service. That’s what we were looking for – it’s difficult to ensure you’re going to get the same levels of thoughtfulness when you open a new office, and we knew we would get that with Giles.”

She also said while the agency’s immediate focus would be on building the UK team quickly, “our ultimate goal longer-term is to look further into Europe, and we’re looking at possible targets for acqui-hire and acquisition.”

On his move to SourceCode, Peddy told PRovoke Media: “I’ve always worked in international firms so the chance to synch up with a US-based business that wants to expand to Europe is exciting as it’s exactly what I’ve done over the years. SourceCode does great work, they are innovative and entrepreneurial, what’s not to like?”

Peddy said his ambition for the UK venture was to “do good quality work with good people in a good culture, grow in the right way and then move into other markets in Europe. The first 90 days will be about ramping up quickly with account executives, managers and directors to run our client work, and then we’ll add more senior resource early next year.”