Aussie brand experience and innovation company, Akcelo, has officially launched its London office – a major milestone in the company’s international expansion and reinforcing its commitment to servicing growing client demand across Europe. The new office adds to its network of offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver and Los Angeles.

The move builds on Akcelo’s independent agency model for global growth, and follows a series of new business wins, with London set to play a key role in the agency’s evolving “Borderless” model. While Akcelo has previously delivered work for UK and European clients through its global offices and swat teams in the region, this marks the first permanent London presence and enables the business to expand relationships on the ground and further scale its full-service offering to existing clients.

Based in Farringdon, the founding team leads include strategy partner, Ben Phillips; business lead, Jade Fonteneau; and creative leads, Mike Gethin and Justin Schoenmaker. The team will report into global CEO, Aden Hepburn; global executive creative director, Louise McQuat; and global client partner, Will Flood; as part of Akcelo’s connected global leadership structure.

Phillips joins from VCCP, where he led global brands including Cadbury, Domino’s and Barclays, with previous roles at Anomaly, Mekanism and R/GA. Gethin rejoins Akcelo following a stint at Xpedition, having previously worked with Deutsch LA, The&Partnership and VaynerMedia. Schoenmaker brings experience from Xpedition, Pen&Pad and VML, while Fonteneau has held key roles at adam&eve, VCCP and Specsavers’ in-house agency, and production company, Partizan.

Akcelo plans to significantly grow its London team over the next 12–18 months, with ambitions to hire 10–20 additional staff to service new clients and global remits as it continues to scale its presence across the UK and Europe.

Aden Hepburn, global CEO at Akcelo, stated, “We’ve always landed ourselves where our clients need us most, so establishing Akcelo in London allows us to better support our client partners in the UK and across EMEA while tapping into an incredible pool of talent in one of the richest creative and commercial hubs in the world. We built Akcelo to be borderless by design, but having boots on the ground in London will elevate our global offering better to deliver the kind of ambitious, integrated, modern work our clients expect. It’s a very exciting next step for us.”

Akcelo also continues to invest in new capability following the recent acquisition of mobile-first experience shop, POPULA.

Cover image l-r: Creative Lead, Mike Gethin; Business Lead, Jade Fonteneau; Strategy Partner, Ben Phillips; Creative Lead, Justin Schoenmaker