Studio North Builds for the Future with New Appointments & Promotion

Manchester based Studio North, one of the North West’s leading independent brand and digital consultancies, is continuing its robust expansion plans by recruiting two new senior members of staff in its digital and business development departments. The new starters also follow the recent announcement that the agency’s former head of creative has been made creative director.

The first appointment is Simon Calderbank who has joined as Studio North’s business development director. Simon boasts eleven successful years in senior roles across advertising & marketing, live communications, digital and event hire agencies. During that time he has generated £1.5M+ revenues and has built B2B & B2C relationships across multiple channels.

His previous clients include: Bank of America, OCS Security, British Grand Prix, SJM Concerts, Jones Lang LaSalle, Oxfordshire County Council, Make-A-Wish Foundation UK. His new role will primarily focus on developing Studio North’s profile and client base across various sectors.

Greg Smith, previously creative director at Mando Group and KMP, has been appointed head of digital. Prior to that, he also held senior brand and marketing positions in London, New York and Philadelphia. Greg has vast experience in traditional disciplines but over the last six years has branched out into experiential marketing proving to be an expert in user experience consultancy.
Under his leadership, the revitalised department is offering a more bespoke and consultative led approach to digital channels now incorporating social media platforms, mobile campaigns and apps, so clients are offered cohesive and fully integrated projects and campaigns.

These two appointments are further underpinned by the promotion of Steve Buckley who has become creative director. Steve has been an outstanding senior creative within the agency for eight years and in that time has climbed the ranks earning huge respect both internally and from clients.

Michael Di Paola, director at Studio North commented; ‘The two appointments and Steve’s promotion are a real step forward for the agency and are testament to the talents of our staff and the results we’ve achieved for our clients. The last twelve months has been a great period that has also seen the amicable departure of one of the co-founders as we plan for the future.

Michael concluded; The calibre of the new members of the team are a measure of our determination and the ambition we have for the next 10 years as we gear up our strategic and creative offering to compete with the best agencies in the UK.’