AKQA hires design director Ros Horner, strategy director Alex Houghton and ACD Tim Baggott

International brand experience giant, AKQA, has today announced three new senior appointments; Ros Horner (left) as design director, Alex Houghton (top right) as strategy director and Tim Baggott (bottom right) as associate creative director to join its Melbourne and Sydney studios.

The announcement signifies another major development for the agency as it continues to lead the way in brand experience in Australia.

Says Brian Vella, managing director of AKQA Asia Pacific: “We’re rapt to welcome Ros, Alex and Tim to the Australian team. The addition of new talent is always an exciting process, as fresh minds in the agency help challenge our thinking and brings new waves of creativity.

“We’ve have had another really big year and bringing on three new directors, all of whom have extensive international backgrounds and skillsets, will see us create even more cutting edge brand and customer experience work for our clients. The Australian creative market is booming and off the back of work like ‘No Robe’, which we did for the Art Series Hotel Group, combined with our recent NAB Business brand win, we’re looking forward to delivering more innovative work with our clients.”

Ros Horner, former design director at Wunderman has been appointed design director of Melbourne. After working in London and New York for the past nine years and overseeing all things design at Wunderman, SapientNitro and Blast Radius, she is now on Australian soil and loving the sea change.

Newly appointed strategy director, Alex Houghton will be working from AKQA’s Sydney studio. Houghton has worked as a strategy director since 2007, following his transition from senior account director at marketing and advertising agency Clemenger BBDO. Houghton will lead a high performing team of associates and senior strategists at AKQA to develop and deliver world class creative strategies for the company’s ever-growing clients.

Tim Baggott has relocated from AQKA’s London studio to the Sydney studio to assume the same role held in London; associate creative director. During his time in the UK, Baggott’s focus was on leading campaigns for Volvo Cars Global, working across both the London and Gothenburg studios. He also worked on campaigns for Volvo Cars US, Rocket Entertainment (Elton John), Foster + Partners and Activision.

Combined, these experienced new hires add greater depth and breadth to the existing 250 personnel working across Australia and New Zealand. The last two years have been a period of high growth, which the agency has its sights set on continuing.