Our key people

• Jo-Ann Robertson

  CEO, Global Markets

  Jo-Ann Robertson

  CEO, Global Markets

  Jo-ann Robertson is CEO, Global Markets at global communications consultancy Ketchum. The 2022 recipient of Women in Marketing’s global PR Communicator of the Year Award, she started her career as a political advisor and broadcast journalist, before spending the last 20 years in communications consultancies. Jo-ann is a passionate believer in diversity and inclusion, both as the right thing to do and as a driver of business results, leading Ketchum’s global DE&I strategy and overseeing the business’ overall ‘Make Space for Progress’ agenda worldwide. Over the past three years Ketchum has transformed the diversity of the workforce as well as building a truly inclusive workplace. This has been evidenced by securing the Silver accreditation from Creative Equals (and being their highest scoring organisation ever). Jo-ann is a deep client counsellor working with key clients including P&G, Mastercard, Samsung, and The LEGO Foundation. In her spare time Jo-ann is Chair of Young Women’s Trust, a charity fighting for economic justice for women aged 18-30.

• Heather Blundell

  Deputy CEO, UK

  Heather Blundell

  Deputy CEO, UK

  Heather is the Deputy CEO of London with a specific focus on corporate and growth functions. Heather is a specialist in the development of strategic, targeted, high-profile campaigns that deliver real value for brands and organisations. She has expertise in sustainability and social purpose campaigns, recently leading on the multi- award winning ‘Rang-tan’ palm oil Christmas advert that never was campaign for Iceland Foods that saw coverage in every national paper and broadcast outlet.
  Heather oversees national and international accounts for clients in the FMCG, healthcare, hospitality, retail and travel sectors. Campaign accolades over the last two years include four Cannes Lions, six PRWeek Global Awards, a clutch of SABREs including an EMEA and Global ‘Best in Show’ and a Campaigns for Good honour. She has extensive experience in consultancy and works across the UK with teams encompassing consumer marketing, corporate B2B, digital communications, issues management and technology.

• Sera Holland

  Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Global Markets

  Sera Holland

  Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Global Markets

  Sera is Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Global Markets. Prior to joining Ketchum, Sera was co-founder of strategy and innovation consultancy Fawnbrake and CEO of the Material Communications Group, working throughout her career at senior level with global clients such as Google, Carlsberg Group and Access Intelligence, and leading integrated UK-based teams on clients such as Lloyds Banking Group and SSE Plc.

  A former Drum Marketer of the Year, Sera brings over 20 years’ experience at agency leadership level, and in 2020 was recognised at the global Women in Marketing Awards with a Highly Commended Special Award for Outstanding Contribution. An active member of industry networks Bloom and WACL, Sera is committed to championing access, diversity and equity for all, co-chairing the BloomND inclusion group, mentoring as part of The Exchange programme, through Brixton Finishing School and in her role as mentor ambassador for the Creative Mentors Network.

  Sera brings a passion for strategic excellence and communications effectiveness to her role at Ketchum, and is focused on working collaboratively across our client base to deliver on the next stage of our consultancy journey, unlocking success and growth for clients through work that matters.

• Alicia Solanki

  Chief Client and Innovation Officer

  Alicia Solanki

  Chief Client and Innovation Officer

  Alicia is the Chief Client and Innovation Officer at Ketchum UK. In this leadership role, she sits at the epicentre of a senior group of stakeholders to ensure the agency delivers client growth through a relentless focus on innovation and operational excellence. This includes devising and launching new operational models to optimise the way teams are run and clients are serviced, right through to overseeing the development and execution of Ketchum’s innovation roadmap to get NPD out to the agency and wider industry. Beyond this, Alicia also leads the agency’s largest client Samsung, working across multiple business divisions and delivering on fully integrated programmes including strategy and planning, product launch events, executive communications and crisis comms.

  Having worked across corporate communications and brand marketing over the past 17 years, Alicia has a uniquely ‘corpsumer’ mindset and loves the challenge of ‘big brands’. Clients Alicia has led in her tenure at Ketchum include Nissan Europe, FedEx Express, Hertz and P&G. Alicia is also Ketchum’s DE&I consulting programme lead in the UK, and the outgoing Chairwoman of our 40 strong Diversity and Inclusion Council, a role she held for 2 years. She frequently uses her platform for good to mentor Black, Asian and Minority ethnic talent in the industry, as well as giving up her time to speak o DE&I at conferences including the CIPR Annual Conference and Romanian PR Summit in 2022. Away from work, Alicia is married and adores being a mum to Ella (8) and Ethan (5). With an Indian and East African heritage, she can often be found cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Alicia also loves travelling, spending time with her extended family and sampling fermented grapes!

• Gavin Cooper

  Chief Financial Officer

  Gavin Cooper

  Chief Financial Officer

  Gavin brings of over thirty years’ experience, gained in the media sector, having previously worked for Edelman and Ogilvy PR. He works closely with the CEO and agency leaders to drive efficiency and growth, as well as leading the finance team to support the business across day to day operations. A driven and successful individual, Gavin provides the agency with strong financial leadership, whilst supporting our highly motivated organisation to deliver its objectives.

• Janita Lakhanpal

  New Business Director

  Janita Lakhanpal

  New Business Director

  Janita is New Business Director for Ketchum UK, and a member of the Senior Leadership Team since 2020. Janita brings dedication, passion, experience, and is a relentless force for good for Ketchum. She is responsible for the UK business development plan, working in partnership with the SLT to prioritise growth opportunities, ensuring a robust NPD system. She also takes full responsibility for marketing activities, including partnerships, awards, media, and the UK website. Janita is also Chair of London’s Inclusion Council and is always seeking ways to progress Ketchum’s culture, through initiatives and external speakers.

• Deirdre Murphy

  P&G Global Client Partner & EMEA Region

  Deirdre Murphy

  P&G Global Client Partner & EMEA Region

  Deirdre is the Procter & Gamble Global Client Partner for Ketchum and a network of OPRG agencies, which operate as a construct called MMK+. Her role is to bring the best of the network to the P&G business, from top talent to OPRG and OMC innovation, growing the P&G revenue and strengthening the reputation of MMK+ as an invaluable partner. Deirdre has over twenty years’ brand communications experience across a broad spectrum of sectors including FMCG, Technology, Consumer Health and Luxury, and a track record of innovative brand building and growth.  She has a customer-centric approach to global and local audiences in multiple channels, combining business acumen and analytical skills with a sensitivity for impactful narrative development. Deirdre’s expertise lies in brand building (brand vision, strategy, equity definition, narrative development, storytelling, integrated communications and influencer marketing), reputation building (stakeholder influence and brand protection) and business strategy. She has extensive operational experience of network management, leading large diverse teams across multiple cultures and countries.

• Indy Selvarajah

  Chief Creative Officer

  Indy Selvarajah

  Chief Creative Officer

  Born on the rock of Gibraltar. Sri Lankan / Malaysian blood. British by design.
  Indy is an award-winning Creative with 12 years’ experience across a multitude of creative industries.
  He started his career as an artist showing work at The Serpentine Gallery and the Tate & Whitney Museum of American Art in New York before writing a TV show for Channel 4, produced by Charlie Brooker.
  A few years later he moved into Advertising where he wrote and created award-winning work including the Thierry Henry Sky Sports film. It was the most viewed advert in 24hrs, making Facebook history with 21 million views and the 3rd most watched ad in the world for that week.
  Indy has worked at agencies including Kindred, Brothers and Sisters, Weber Shandwick and Edelman Deportivo where he has CD’d award winning campaigns across Xbox, HSBC, Sky, Unilever & The UN.
  Along the way he has won at: Eurobest, D&AD, Cannes, One Show, PR Week, Guardian Top TV Show of the year, Clio and on the jury for the British Arrows, PR Week, Campaign and continues to do talks for: Huffington Post, Cannes, Dubai Lynx, BFI and Channel 4.

• Sophie Raine

  Managing Director, Brand

  Sophie Raine

  Managing Director, Brand

  Sophie Raine is MD of the Consumer Brand practice at Ketchum London, leading the agencies biggest division. Sophie has over 15 years’ experience working in consumer communications. Prior to joining Ketchum at seven months pregnant (yes, you read that right!) in 2019, Sophie spent six years at creative consultancy W, where she worked her way up to deputy managing director.
  At Ketchum, Sophie works across the P&G and VELUX business. Sophie operates with a very ‘hands-on’ approach to both campaign development and delivery and has a track record of generating award-winning creative campaigns with tangible business results. Sophie also sits on the Women in PR committee and is on a mission to increase the number and diversity of women in leadership roles in PR and communications.
  Sophie is recognised as the 4th top PR Professional in the PRWeek UK Power Book 2021, Top 20 in Consumer PR .

• Kirsty Sachrajda

  Chief People Officer, Global Markets

  Kirsty Sachrajda

  Chief People Officer, Global Markets

  Kirsty brings over 15 years’ HR experience, gained in the media sector, having previously worked for LEWIS. Kirsty works closely with the CEO, Global Markets and senior leadership teams to create engaging talent plans that support Ketchum’s strategic priorities. Kirsty also works closely with the Global Markets senior HR leaders to drive consistent employee experience across multiple offices. She is passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive working environment for all and making Ketchum a great place to work.

• Fahad Ahmed

  Finance Director

  Fahad Ahmed

  Finance Director

  Fahad provides strategic financial partnership to Ketchum’s senior leadership and client leadership teams. He’s tasked to ensure the company’s financial commitments are met and that Ketchum – and our clients – have the best financial support in the Omnicom network. ​

  Fahad also oversees everything relating to tax, audit, financial reporting, compliance, contracts, statutory accounts, client procurement conversations, and any other financial need of the agency. ​

  He comes with more than 15 years of experience in the  finance field – 10 of those being within PR, Advertising and Marketing agencies.

• Rick Keen

  Head of Research

  Rick Keen

  Head of Research

  Rick heads up our Research & Analytics department. He is passionate about the power of insights to deliver communications excellence and measurable impact. He has an award-winning track record for creating original research solutions and building teams with an innovation mindset. With more than two decades of experience leading both agency and client-side teams, Rick has a unique perspective on how partner and collaborate most effectively with clients. His experience spans FMCG, FS and Retail.

• Katy Davidson

  Managing Director, Health

  Katy Davidson

  Managing Director, Health

  Katy is a senior communications specialist with over 20 years’ experience in creating and implementing health programmes at a Global, pan-EU and local level for blue chip pharmaceutical companies, non-governmental and patient organisations, and has been based both in the UK and US. At Ketchum, she oversees both the PR and comms teams as well as the ‘med-ed’ (medical education) and MedComms functions in an integrated role. Prior to this, she was Deputy MD for Havas Life Medicom, where she helped to establish and grow the PR and comms business, as well as leading on DE&I and mental health for the agency. She is a senior client adviser and creative problem solver. She has extensive expertise in crisis management, corporate and brand communications, employee engagement, change management and patient education programmes, and is experienced across a range of therapeutic areas.

• Sarah Pinch

  Managing Director, Social & Influence

  Sarah Pinch

  Managing Director, Social & Influence

  A London transplant from Melbourne, Sarah is a passionate, ambitious, curious and results-driven communications professional specialising in communications across traditional, digital and social media platforms. Sarah is the Managing Director of Social & Influence at Ketchum. She was previously Head of Social & Influence at Red Brick Road, led teams at Ogilvy, and prior to that was at Hope&Glory. At Ketchum, she’s optimising our clients with a paid media and creative perspective. On the different Social & Influence platforms, Sarah believes in PR crossover, telling PRWeek “PR has to be everywhere and spreading across all the different platforms, and having a native strategy per platform. The days of being able to share one asset across all the different social media channels just isn’t working anymore. You need a bespoke strategy for each channel.”

• Steph McDonald

  Managing Director, Client Innovation

  Steph McDonald

  Managing Director, Client Innovation

  Steph is a Client Experience expert and MD of client innovation. Bringing over 15 years’ experience leading complex, integrated and fast paced businesses across both consumer and business decision maker landscapes, Steph is positioned to bring Ketchum client’s the best experience possible. With a deep specialism in leveraging partnerships to reach new audiences and generate impact and business results, Steph excels in creating communications programs at both a global and local level.

  Working with brands such as Adobe, Warner Brothers Discovery, P&G, DuPont, Booking.com, Pepsi, Gillette, and Nissan, Steph has a wealth of experiencing managing and leveraging complex international organizations including; the IOC, Formula 1, UEFA, FA and  FIFA.

  Through her work with Adobe, Steph is leading a large integrated agency team to reach both consumer and enterprise audiences with high impact programs delivering targeted earned and social media including creative ideation, audience analysis, social strategy, digital content creation, executive comms and thought leadership.

  Steph has a deep specialism in Olympic Games activation. As global lead for Procter & Gamble’s award-winning Olympic Games campaign and Discovery Communications ‘Home of Olympics In Europe’, Steph’s role for the past six Olympic Games has included delivering a combination of; communications strategy, central management of 35+ markets, leadership of on-site teams and media operations for 100+ journalists per Games.