Jon Wilkins Joins Karmarama

Jon Wilkins, one of the original founders of Naked, the ground- breaking communications agency, will join Karmarama, the flagship agency of the Karma Communications Group, as Executive Chairman in January 2014.

Wilkins, who takes the role vacated by Nicola Mendelsohn last year, will be an equity partner, working full time across a variety of clients and projects.

Wilkins will be part of the Karmarama senior management team with a remit to help build on Karmarama’s recent success. He will also take on a range of client and new business responsibilities.

Wilkins pioneered the concept of media neutrality during his time at Naked, speaking regularly at the World Federation of Advertisers on integrated   marketing. He worked on a range of local and global clients including Coca-Cola and Unilever and remained at Naked for 13 years as it grew into an international group with offices in cities including New York, Melbourne, Sao Paolo, Paris, Singapore, Dubai and Tokyo. Naked was sold to Photon for $60m in 2008. His move to Karmarama is his first role since leaving Naked at the end of 2013.

Ben Bilboul, CEO said: "Jon is a huge talent and we couldn’t be more excited to work with him. Having previously built a hugely progressive business, growing it into a global success, he will be an amazing addition to our management team.”

Wilkins said: “I'm really thrilled about joining Karmarama - it feels like a home from home. I love their progressive spirit and believe in their model and what they stand for. As we continue to add more skills and talent to the business I hope my background in building integrated ideas will help.”

In 2013, the Karma Communications Group acquired social media agency Grape Digital, bringing the headcount in the group to over 250. Last year also saw the addition of ten new clients to the Karmarama stable including Virgin Active, Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banks, Sun Pat, Cobra and Grolsch.