MSQ’s Brave Spark Continues Growth with Key Appointments Across Departments

Brave Spark, the award-winning creative studio owned by international creative and technology group MSQ, has made a raft of new hires as part of its ambitious growth strategy.  

Having won major new business from brands such as Which?, Trivento and ThermoFisher, Brave Spark has already doubled its headcount in the past 18 months, and has continued its rapid expansion with new senior appointments across account management and creative.

The agency has hired Rita Diria as business director, a former McCann London Business Lead who has overseen award-winning work for the likes of Reckitt. Reporting to Rebecca Vickery, Brave Spark’s newly appointed managing director, Rita will work across Brave Spark’s growing client list, as well as evolving the overarching Brave Spark brand proposition.   

During her career, Rita has worked at agencies in Singapore, Australia and the UK. In addition to McCann, she has worked in London at The Creative Engagement Group and Grey, and CHE Proximity and Cummins & Partners in Sydney. 

Rita says, “Brave Spark offered exactly the type of opportunity I was looking for – an agency with ambitious plans and a vibrant culture, with a unique model that creates ideas that live beyond traditional channels. It feels like an incredibly exciting time to be joining Rob, Rebecca and the team as Brave Spark accelerates its growth.”

As part of its commitment to investing in talent across the board, Brave Spark’s creative and design teams have also been bolstered with the hirings of Beatrice Hug, Charlotte Fox and Leena Keshishian.

Beatrice has joined as a Design Lead, working into recently appointed design director Raphael O’Selle. She moves to Brave Spark from Karma Drinks, the award-winning beverage brand, where she was in charge of the distinct look and feel of Karma’s brand and products, as well as the creative for its Karma Foundation.

Prior to Karma, Beatrice worked as an art director and graphic designer in Hong Kong, spending almost two years at Sassy Media Group, as well as enjoying stints at Ogilvy & Mather, DDB Group and TBWA\Hong Kong.

Charlotte and Leena join Brave Spark as a creative team from digital creative agency Topham Guerin, where they worked together for almost two years. The pair are the first hires of Brave Spark’s new executive creative director Juliet McLaren, who joined Brave Spark in April, and will join a rapidly growing creative department.

Rob Drake, co-founder of Brave Spark, says, “Brave Spark is bursting with talented storytellers, and I’m delighted we’ve found more brilliant thinkers and makers to join the team. We’re an agency who wants to do things differently, bringing diverse experts together to solve unconventional challenges for our clients, and with Rita, Beatrice, Charlotte and Leena on board we have even more firepower to do just that.

“The need to expand across disciplines is testament to how quickly we’ve grown over the past 18 months, and that’s down to the energy and hard work of everyone within the team, and the quality of an ever-expanding list of brilliant clients.”