Jackson Parsey and Cook to elevate the practice’s offering
In an effort to propel its Brand Design & Consulting offering, R/GA has announced the appointment of Melissa Jackson Parsey as VP, Managing Director to oversee the practice. Additionally, Augustus Cook was named Executive Creative Director to support Melissa bridge brand strategy, brand design, and innovation consulting. R/GA’s Brand Design & Consulting practice is centered around an approach supporting R/GA’s purpose of designing and building brands for a more human future, designing brands to function like operating systems fueled by purpose, enabled by technology, and committed to meeting human needs.
Melissa Jackson Parsey has worked at the forefront of brand, innovation, and experience design in the US, China, and EMEA. She joins R/GA from creative network B-Reel, where she served as Global Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to this, she was Head of Strategy at transformation consultancy Co:Collective, where she built an interdisciplinary strategy group and offering, and she worked directly with C-suite and business leaders to define their brand stories and how they live these from the inside out.
Augustus Cook joined R/GA in 2015 as a Design Director from JKR New York. Since then, he’s led multiple global brand and identity projects for key clients, including Nike, Google, PepsiCo’s bubly, Evolved by Nature, Shopify, Home Depot, and more as Group Creative Director. In partnership with Melissa, Augustus will be charting the new creative ambition for the Brand Design & Consulting practice, and leading and growing the creative team.
“Melissa’s focus has always been growing purposeful, connected brands that add value to people’s lives and our planet, and building collaborative teams that operate at the intersection of culture and technology. Our client partners will be better equipped to live in the digital world and have a more meaningful connection to their consumers and society with Melissa’s guidance,” said Robin Forbes, EVP, Managing Director.
“I believe in R/GA’s ambition and its ability to deliver on it. Brands need to function like operating systems in order to adopt verbal, visual, and behavioral design intelligence for the greater good. R/GA is uniquely placed to help its partners realize this because of the team’s collective expertise and experience. They understand how brands connect to commercial and corporate strategy; how they can be systematically built and operationalized in a digital-first environment, and most importantly add up to create something more meaningful that people want to participate in,” Melissa Jackson Parsey added.
In October, R/GA announced the hire of Smruti Shah as Executive Strategic Director of the Brand Design & Consulting practice, rounding out the executive leadership team. Previously, she led digital transformation and customer experience development as VP of Product Strategy at POSSIBLE and Wunderman Thompson.
Taken from: https://www.rga.com/news/press-releases/rga-powers-brand-design-consulting-with-new-leadership