IPG's Kinesso appoints chief operations officer for UK and Ireland

Kinesso has appointed Diana Erskine chief operations officer UK and Ireland for the recently merged company's business.

Joining the executive leadership team for UK and Ireland, Erskine will report to Chloe Hawking, chief executive, UK and Ireland and president EMEA. She will also work alongside Stuart Lunn, group managing director, and Seun Odeneye, managing director for media.

The new role sees Erskine become responsible for operations and achieving business and growth targets in the next three years. The agency "uses algorithmic and AI tech to enable the UK's largest skilled digital marketing team to deliver unique customer experiences online" and Erskine will ensure the business is "operationally organised to scale".

She joins the IPG Mediabrands performance marketing agency from And Digital, where she was chief of hub operations and instrumental in its commercial and operational functions, helping achieve growth and launch three UK offices. Before that, she worked at Dept Agency as commercial director, and at Reading Room for a decade, including as managing director.

Kinesso was formed last September from the merger of IPG's Reprise, Matterkind and Kinesso into a single P&L. Hawking, former Reprise Digital UK chief executive, was made UK and Ireland chief, overseeing a staff of 750 in London, Leeds and Dublin before also becoming president EMEA. Other leadership appointments included Lunn, previously managing partner at Open Partners, and Odeneye, former Matterkind managing director.

Hawking said: "As a tech-driven performance agency with 700 people across four locations, operational excellence is at the core of our success and it is brilliant to have Di on board leading us into the future. Diana brings a wealth of experience and a strategic and transformative skillset to enable us to build on our momentum."

Erskine said: "This move is hugely exciting to me as I move into a slightly different flavour of digital business at an increased scale. Most uniquely, this is the opportunity to build in operational excellence and teams from the ground up at the start of a new business journey."