LONDON — The PHA Group has appointed former Current Global founder and CEO George Coleman as its new chief executive, as part of a restructuring of the agency’s leadership team.

Joint managing directors Shelley Frosdick and Stuart Skinner, who have been with the firm for 20 years, since it was founded by former News of the World editor Phil Hall in 2005, have decided to leave the business to explore new opportunities.

Coleman spent a total of 17 years at IPG. He joined Weber Shandwick as a client services director in 2008 from Nelson Bostock, where he was tech MD and board director. In 2012 he founded full-service communications agency Creation within IPG; the firm grew to 20 offices globally and a client roster including Microsoft, Netflix, Burger King and Adidas.

In 2019, Creation was merged with Current Marketing to form Current Global, with Current founder Virginia Devlin and Creation global president Coleman becoming co-CEOs. Devlin retired from the firm last year.

IPG has confirmed it will not be replacing Coleman’s role at Current Global. In June last year, The Weber Shandwick Collective created Current Group, which is made up of Current Global and health marketing and scientific communications specialist DNA Communications and is led by Mike Rosich, former global president of DNA.

Coleman told PRovoke Media: “I’m really proud of everything we achieved together at Current and I wish everyone there amazing success, but Virginia leaving last year was the right moment to start thinking afresh. I wasn’t expecting to go back into agency life quite so soon, but leading PHA is a really exciting opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands.”

He said the 100-strong agency was in the “sweet spot” in the communications industry, as a mid-market independent firm with an integrated offer: “It’s big enough to have breadth of resources but agile enough to build teams around clients, and the freedom to invest in people, products and offers ahead of the curve is exciting.

“PHA is performing well and doing proper integrated work across all channels and sectors, with a real appetite and ambition to grow. I hope as CEO I can bring out the full potential of the business. It feels like a natural fit in terms of my experience, and the culture: it’s incredibly collegiate with a really strong team who just want to do great work.”

The PHA Group is based in London and also has offices in Manchester and Leeds, and US-based a digital business, Dig & Dig, in Boston. It offers PR, crisis management, digital and creative services across the consumer, corporate, healthcare, technology, legal and not-for-profit sectors, with specialisms in food and drink, wellness, sport and sustainability.

At PHA, founder Hall said: “I would like to thank Shelley and Stuart and wish them every success for the future. We have been working together to ensure a smooth handover to the new management team.

“Shelley and Stuart joined the company nearly 20 years ago when we had only four members of staff. During that time PHA has grown 20-fold into a multi service business with offices in London, Leeds, Manchester and Boston, Massachusetts. They have led a team that has created the foundations on which our future growth and investment plans can firmly be built.”

Frosdick and Skinner said in a joint statement that it had been a “privilege” to lead PHA: “We have worked with some fantastic clients and challenging briefs, but it is our phenomenal colleagues we will miss the most. We wish them and PHA every continued success in the future.”

PHA has also made two other senior appointments: Rebecca Horne, a partner and chief financial officer at Leathwaite executive search joins the board as a non-executive director and Anthony Sherick, former MD of The Technojobs Group, becomes sales and marketing director and is also appointed to the board.