Our Team
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The Team
Us
A diverse team with a wealth of experience from the likes of Hill and Knowlton, Freud, Edelman, Shine, Exposure, Bite, Macmillan Cancer, Synergy, Balance Live, Naked, Making Waves, Billington Cartmell, Punch Taverns, Lawson Dodd, Slice, Pasha, Alchemy, Get Involved, Gorgeous, The Communication Group, Four Communications, Frank PR, Capital PR, Motorola, Lexis, Band & Brown, College Hill, Brand Nation, McCann Erickson, Sputnik, The Marketing Store, Beatwax and BVHE to name but a few!
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Charlie
The House Pet
Has a love of flies and changing things around. Gets particularly upset when he’s called a lizard, when everyone actually knows he’s a chameleon.
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Mark Stringer
Founder
Mark founded PrettyGreen 4th July 2008 as a way of fulfilling his entrepreneurial dream of helping create and own new brands and after being convinced by one particular Client that it would be fun (as well as realising that he wasn’t quite ready to retire).
With over 15 years of Client and Agency experience, an integrated thinker, who’s not bad at coming up with an idea or two. As well as setting up PrettyGreen, he sits on the Board of C4 Britdoc, is a judge for PRCA and PR Week Awards and sits on the PRCA Council. He is also a founder and Director of Metropolitan Spirits, where he has helped create and is in the process of launching La Maison Fontaine (a new Ultra Premium Absinthe).
He was once a school high jump champion (but he was 9).
If you fancy following his ramblings he can be found on Twitter StringsLondon
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Wendy Stringer
Head of Brand & Operations
Wendy started off her career in Account Management, heading up Clients like Levi’s, Converse and Coca-Cola, before moving into a Brand Director role. Responsible for HR, Finance, Office and brand development, she’s particularly loved at payday.
She once seduced a Director at her old company, but is happy to admit that he since became her husband and the father of her three children.
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Emma Grace
Client Servicing Director - Media Comms
Emma has been at PrettyGreen since the company was born and now heads up the total Media Communications offering. Having worked in PR for over 13 years, she has planned and implemented a vast array of communications campaigns for a variety of leading FMCG, lifestyle and entertainment brands.
She started off in advertising starring in a JJB sports ad, having to dance like a mad lady all day at The Cross nightclub in Kings Cross (without alcohol) with a woolly hat, vest and shorts on. Her career in advertising ended with JJB and a Comms path, was then chosen.
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Jessica Hargreaves
Operations Director
Jess heads up PrettyGreen’s operations – making sure that we deliver excellent service and value to clients. With over 10 years of client servicing experience developing integrated campaigns for Buena Vista, Virgin Trains, Cadbury, 3 Mobile and Unilever, she has a broad experience base to draw from.
As a Geordie, who started her career in the pub trade, she brings a level of groundedness and her love of spreadsheets is only surpassed by her love of Christmas, where planning starts in late Spring.
Proudest moment of 2012: Being part of the Cadbury London 2012 delivery – pitching the Games Crew campaign in 2009 and seeing them deliver nearly 1million games 3 years later.
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Lucy Mutch
Associate Director
Lucy has a wealth of experience in her 12 year career starting at The Communication Group in 1997. A brief hiatus Down Under, Lucy worked for two Sydney 2000 Olympic sponsors – Coca Cola and Cadburys.
Coming back to Blighty, Lucy worked for the family business before heading back to Hill & Knowlton, heading up the adidas account, working on the Rugby World Cup, Beijing Olympics, Lions tour and The Ashes. During this time, Lucy also worked on Barclays ATP World Tour Finals before moving to PrettyGreen to head-up the Cadbury’s 2012 PR Team.
Lucy has an international tennis ranking. Although this is only in Bermuda, she is still the bookies favourite British female to win Wimbledon in 2010.
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Claire Ashman
Head of Music & Culture
Having spent 10 years in festival fields apparently working Claire joined PrettyGreen at its inception to head up the culture team. Her previous life included stints at Slice PR, Pacha and Angel Music Group before joining Get Involved as Head of PR. There she worked with brands and bands including Audi TT, Kopparberg, Channel 4’s Skins, Hed Kandi, Monarch (FlyKandi), and Dr. Martens as well as developing and managing the PR campaigns for Underage, Field Day, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Snowbombing, Rock Ness, Knowsley Hall Music Festival, Pete Tong and Fatboy Slim. She now heads up the PrettyFresh team developing creative solutions for brands and events.
Her biggest achievement to date is winning a Blue Peter badge for a gymnastics routine and possibly getting Geoff Capes to sign a picture of his budgie
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Pete Shepherd
Junior Account Manager
Pete graduated from the University of Exeter in 2008 and spent the following year helping form a ‘Beard-based Entertainment Company’ that toured music festivals in the UK, embracing a more hirsute pursuit of life.
His experience across the UK meant he was a valuable addition to the Music & Culture team at PrettyGreen in 2009. Working across the Trident, Red Bull and Nando’s accounts, Pete brought his love for all things music and culture into the workplace. Since starting at PrettyGreen, Pete has helped promote multiple music & culture events throughout London and the UK, worked closely in the development of digital & social media projects with major brands and has helped to leverage talent through a range of campaigns.
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Debbie Longmuir
Finance Manager
Debbie has worked for above and below the line agencies and has more recently been involved in the Experiential Sector. She has worked for Companies such as Mother, Wunderman, Mercier Grey and Evoke. She is our Finance Manager and keeps a close eye on the Company purse strings ensuring that we account for every penny. Omit to issue a Purchase Order at your peril.
She loves her Eighties music and is rather pleased that her ‘era’ is enjoying a deserved rejuvenation and receiving the appreciation it fully deserves. OK we can maybe forget Five Star in that equation but in her eyes you can keep PlayStation as Atari is close to her heart.
Being a Season Ticket Holder for Spurs she is always in a good mood on a Monday morning having watched a masterclass in the art of playing football which other supporters have yet to experience. COYS !!
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Sian Baker
Director of Experiences
The greenest of all at PrettyGreen, our very own Captain Planet Sian started her career in music, even stating her own label, Pure Mint.
Moving to Making Waves, Sian throughly enjoyed the benefits of working across Malibu, Cuervo, Sourz, Unite and Aftershock before joining Lunch Communications to manage events in the UK and across Europe.
After a year in Oz, enjoying the sun, sand and surfers, Sian returned to the UK to become Head of Events, working across Cadbury 2012 and growing the Pretty Green events offering.
Also a fitness instructor, Sian can do 100 press-ups in a minute (even whilst saving the planet.)
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Lynsey Keyes
Head of Digital Integration
Lynsey’s agency life began 12 years ago in the midlands in retail promotions until she found it a little dull and crossed over into brand strategy working with way more exciting entertainment and lifestyle brands. A fair stint at Exposure led to multi-discipline, integrated work delivering a heap of award winning campaigns for Virgin Trains, LG Mobile, Symantec,The Prostate Cancer Charity plus the strategic repositioning of Jacques Cider for Heineken UK and a full through-the-line campaign including the immensely popular ultimate girly haven, The Jacques Townhouse.
A client-servicing expert (which basically means she loves people) Lynsey’s role at PrettyGreen is born from a recognition that Digital should be at the heart of every Comms campaign, thus she drives the digital agenda across all teams, and for every campaign.
She’s a qualified massage therapist, ex-stage performer, dancer of 20 years and adrenalin addict, who’s always on the look out for new challenges and something to top climbing Kilimanjaro a few years ago.
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Ben Knight
Senior Producer
Ben spent seven years on the road managing activity for high profile brands such as BMW, Pepsi and Valentino at events including the British Grand Prix, Twenty20 Cricket World Cup and London Fashion Week.
The lure of the London 2012 Games convinced Ben to give up his life on the road and he came into PrettyGreen in 2010 to run the Cadbury Games Crew project. Ben is proud to have delivered over a million games played across 600 event days on the project.
Ben is a real child of the 80s and has been at his most excited during his time at PrettyGreen when meeting Olympic heroes Kris Akubusi and Geoff Capes.
Ben’s ultimate PrettyGreen moment however was when he managed to blag his way onto the Olympic stadium track for a photo finish. In his spare time, Ben loves sport and can be found either on the golf course, playing cricket or watching his beloved West Ham.
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Claire MacDonald
Senior Account Manager
Claire joined the consumer team in 2010 and has since delivered successful campaigns, events and stunts for many of PrettyGreen’s clients – including Nando’s, Cadbury Dairy Milk and BBC Children in Need.
With a wealth of experience working closely with FMCG, blue chip and challenger brands, Claire’s days in the PrettyGreen office have seen her planning press trips, looking after celebrities, jostling for space in photographer pits and reading a lot of MailOnline.
When not in the office, Claire is a keen singer, wannabe chef and avid watcher of trashy TV.
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Charlotte Harwood
Account Manager
Charlotte works on the Sport team at PrettyGreen sharing her time between profiling some of Red Bull’s most amazing events and athletes, leveraging Under Armour’s sponsorships and athletes and raising the profile of spinal cord research charity Wings for Life.
Throughout her three years at Bournemouth University Charlotte worked for Red Bull on their student marketing programme, and yes, she drove a Red Bull Mini. After graduating with a degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications Charlotte went on to intern on the Red Bull Communications team before joining PrettyGreen at the end of 2010.
Outside of work Charlotte’s passions are skiing, running, cycling, dressmaking (don’t ask) and going to music festivals and gigs. She’s terrified of dogs and can’t dance.
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Sarah Henderson
Group Account Director
After a year surrounded by suits and briefcases, Sarah swapped the not-so-glamourous world of B2B PR for the bright lights of consumer PR.
For the next five years Sarah worked at Frank PR, creating and managing campaigns for a number of high profile brands such as BlackBerry, Britvic, Guitar and DJ Hero, npower, Gymbox, G-Shock & Virgin Media. Projects ranged from co-ordinating BlackBerry’s sponsorship of London Fashion Week for three seasons to raising £500,000 for Comic Relief as part of NPower’s sponsorship and installing human weights in Gymbox (don’t ask)!
She has now moved on to PrettyGreen to work on the Cadbury Spots v Stripes team – living and breathing all that is London 2012.
Sarah is more than a little bit obsessed with Take That, Grey’s Anatomy, going to the theatre, Diet Coke and West Ham United. Oh and she has a serious phobia of balloons.
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Kylie Black
Account Manager
After graduating in Psychology, Kylie took a year out to travel before heading home to kick start her career in Events.
Swapping her Essex homeland for the bright lights of London, Kylie landed a role at Candour Marketing and EBM where she became immersed in the world of Experiential marketing, working on projects for the likes of Audi, Kimberley Clark, Coke and Peugeot.
Kylie then moved to iD Experiential where she managed promotional campaigns for numerous brands including FMCG giants Britvic and Nestlé.
Kylie’s passion for the Olympics, chocolate and all things purple eventually led her to PrettyGreen where she can happily be found organising events for Cadbury 2012.
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Katie Hunter
Senior Account Manager
Since starting out in PR fresh out of Leeds University three years ago, Katie has tried her hand at a range of sectors, from beauty, lifestyle and fashion through to music, working across big brand clients including John Frieda and Neal’s Yard Remedies as well as independent music labels and promoters like Deadly People and Late Night Tales. Into most things music and arts related – as long as it doesn’t involve country music or bad stand-up – she has now joined Pretty Green’s Culture team.
A not-so-closeted metal fan, the more dingy the bar the better but that’s not to say she would ever turn down an invite to somewhere more glamorous… or playing old school garage. Out of office hours, you can catch up with her on a blog for London make-up brand Rimmel writing about all things London.
http://twitter.com/k_t_hunter
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Jack Swallow
Account Executive
After graduating from Westminster University in 2009, Jack knew that a job in psychology was unlikely and that it was time to find his way. Starting with several small jobs he jumped into the social scene organising successful club nights, events and DJing.
A succession of internships at record labels and music PR companies, late nights from DJing, early mornings at various bar jobs, lead to the decision that it was time to pursue something steadier. With the help of a lucky call into the office for a week, PrettyGreen was an obvious choice for a guy previously averse to offices.
As part of PrettyGreen, Jack works across the Red Bull account having recently expanded into the sport offering, on top of the music and culture projects. This has given Jack the opportunity to get involved with the global phenomenon that is Red Bull Stratos, a PR ‘dream job’.
Jack also heads up office Morale and the Beers for the Boys account as well as recording the fortnightly Podcast with Producer Pete. Despite the free speech approach to this, Jack and Pete remain employed.
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Sophia Gardner
Digital Account Manager
Hailing from Byron Bay, Australia, Sophia began her media career as a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, breaking stories around the clock as part of their online news team. Ever the adventurer, however, it was not long before she craved a new challenge, and set off to travel Europe.
Arriving in London in July 2010, after eating and shopping her way around much of Europe, she landed a job on the Daily Telegraph’s fashion website, where she developed and managed their online social media presence. A member of the digital team at Pretty Green, she works to build up the online presence of PrettyGreen’s top clients through digital campaigns and social media engagement.
In her spare time you may find her trawling through vintage markets, exploring London by bike, hunting down original music, or watching her number one guilty pleasure: Glee.
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Ben Thomas
Digital Senior Account Manager
Ben has recently made the switch (see what we did there?) to digital. After 5 years working in ‘standard PR’ he decided enough was enough and bought his blogging, tweeting and HTMLing to PrettyGreen.
Having started out at Four Communications trying to convince the UK that Chip & PIN was the way forward (no easy task), his love of video games took him to Dubai where he introduced PS3 to the Middle East markets. There he launched golf courses with Sergio Garcia, hotel chains with Stelios and had a brief but educational stint as a Tech journalist for Stuff magazine.
After returning to UK soil he plied his trade at M&C Saatchi PR across a variety of tech and lifestyle accounts and has most recently been the freelancer ‘who wouldn’t stop coming back’ at Frank PR. At Frank he worked on, amongst other things, the launch of the new online series of Alan Partridge – Mid Morning Matters.
When not in the office Ben can usually be found tweeting nonsense, making websites or at Kenilworth Road (the home of, in his view, the ‘mighty’ Luton Town FC).
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Mark Scholefield
Senior Account Executive
Mark graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2010 with a degree in Business, like everybody else. After travelling briefly, he decided it was time to grow up and find a job.
He loves to be creative and get involved in different projects. His current favourite location for meetings is the 100m track inside the Olympic Stadium.
Bringing a taste of the countryside to the office, Mark enjoys educating the urbanites in the finer points of home-grown produce and rural living.
Passionate about food, wine and sport, Mark splits his time watching rugby, adding to his wine collection or whiling away the hours in his kitchen.
Described by a colleague as “the oldest young person they had ever met”, Mark takes pride in an extensive knowledge of old music and films nobody has ever heard of.
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Coco Stephens
Account Manager
Coco’s joined PrettyGreen in 2009 on a placement year from studying PR at Bournemouth University.
Although she’s not sure, it was either; gasping at Red Bull stunts, Absinth tasting, Nando’s celebrity spotting or dressing up as a nun for Red Bull Cola (oh yes), that certified her love for all things PrettyGreen.
After a brief travelling stint and a bit more studying within her final Uni. year. Coco jumped at the chance to return in 2011 as an Account Exec. working across the Nando’s and Creme Egg accounts as a member of team cheese (a.k.a. lifestyle PR).
Coco has coined the nick name Judith Chalmers due to her obsession with sunny holidays. When not in the office Coco enjoys spending time with her adopted giraffe at London Zoo.
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Lucy Mart
Head of Sport
Lucy joins PrettyGreen with eight years of sport sponsorship and PR experience and having worked across no less than 38 different sports… who’s counting?
Lucy’s PR career was first crafted in the world of luxury travel before she was tempted away from the glamour of 5* hotels by the chants of the terraces to deliver T-Mobile’s football sponsorships for Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Since then, Lucy has managed campaigns for brands big and small including PUMA, Vodafone and Greene King IPA as well as Olympic campaigns for sponsors and London 2012.
Heading up the PrettyGreen sport team, Lucy joins from Edelman where she led the London sports practice.
Lucy was 200m county champion at school. Nowadays Lucy plays netball and prefers jogging to sprinting.
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Hannah Jones
Account Director
Hannah began her career in gardening pr but headed to London shortly after to find herself in a role that didn’t involve a lawnmower. Now with 6 years under her belt, Hannah has worked across a broad range of accounts including BlackBerry, FoxyBingo, Amazon and Warner Bros. When not at work, Hannah enjoys playing netball and a glass of wine, although not at the same time.
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Tim Beer
Finance Director
With over 20 years experience working in various Finance capacities for London ad agencies, Tim brings a wealth of knowledge to this vibrant growing company. His IT skills should keep the company network running smoothly and his unhealthy interest in the UK tax system is causing some raised eyebrows.
Tim has a very keen interest in cricket (playing, organising and watching), football, golf, skiing and cycling. He can often be seen charging over the Surrey Downs on his Roubaix, and still competes in a 5-a-side football league against lads half his age! -
Jack Davy
Account Executive
Jack likes all things creative; he studied Marketing and Advertising at University and joined PrettyGreen as an intern within the Sports team.
After graduating from Uni Jack spent 7 months travelling and experiencing new cultures.
Other than cheering on the mighty Chelsea FC, Jack loves music and is very proud of his ever increasing trainer collection.
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Bea Chew
Account Executive
After graduating with a Law degree from Newcastle, Bea worked in a property search and development firm. She left for a change of scenery to travel across South America and Asia. She returned to London and now works across various consumer accounts including; Nando’s, Pretty Polly, All About Food and Cadbury Creme Egg.
When Bea is not lifting things twice her height for work, she will be listening to House music, drinking Gin and talking nonsense.
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Laura Sharkey
Receptionist/Office Assistant
After graduating from University with a First Class degree in History, Laura was keen to drop the books and head to London to commence her career in PR.
Laura has undertaken a variety of PR internships, both at PrettyGreen and also in house at John Lewis and the Museum of London Press Office. After her work experience placement at PrettyGreen, Laura knew she was a PrettyGreener.
Laura enjoys her role on reception and she is always willing to help out the PR and events teams whenever needed.
You will never see Laura without a smile and in her spare time you will find her shopping in London, admiring all things pink or working up a sweat in the gym. Laura particularly enjoys running and she takes part in Race for Life every year.
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George Costi
Junior Account Manager
Starting off as an intern at Hill & Knowlton many moons ago, George quickly decided that corporate communications wasn’t for him, and spent the next three and a half years at Frank PR. As a member of the Activision EU team, he helped to launch three games in the best-selling Call of Duty franchise, with each successive release going on to break the record for the biggest entertainment launch of all time. He was also responsible for a number of other high-proifile titles, including Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, James Bond, Spider-Man, Transformers, Skylanders and LEGO Star Wars.
Having been a gamer all his life (even once spending a summer working as a games tester for SEGA), George brought his passion and knowledge to other gaming clients as well, promoting the European expansion of US online retailer GameFly amongst key press and helping Square Enix’s Sleeping Dogs become the sixth best-selling new IP of the year upon its August 2012 release. He wasn’t all gaming though, as he also worked across a number of food, drink and entertainment brands, including Nestle, Doritos, Grolsch, Burn and ClearVision.
When not working on the EA account, George can more often than not be found playing the latest shooter online, trying in vain to complete the backlog of unplayed games that’s currently haunting him, or catching up on the latest happenings in the world of professional wrestling. An unashamed shopaholic, his pride and joy remains his Imelda Marcos-esque trainer collection, just don’t ask him if he ever actually uses any of his trainers for their intended sporting purpose…
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Lucy Porter
Head of Digital
After working in the TV industry for a couple of years helping coordinate cartoons for Disney, Lucy quickly realised that she spent far too many hours on the internet and landed a job in online PR. She hasn’t looked back, and now spends her days surfing Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, all in the name of her digital clients of course.
Hailing from a consumer technology background at Ketchum, Lucy has worked on digital campaigns for Sony Europe, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Kodak and Baileys Irish Creme, and got a taste for even more consumer brands at Hill + Knowlton where she worked on Dairylea, Carte Noire Coffee, TUI travel and Macmillan Cancer Support, among others.
At PrettyGreen Lucy loves nothing more than getting stuck into an influencer audit for Under Armour, overseeing the community management of 1.3 million Facebook fans for Nandos, or trying out the latest social media tool in the office.
After performing in the London Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012, Lucy now spends her free time planning her next US road trip and obsessing over anything Lego-related.
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Lauren Clark
Digital Account Executive
After graduating from Leeds Met armed with a degree in Public Relations. Lauren set her sights on the bright lights of London. Stints in Adelaide, Australia and Madrid, España gave this wide-eyed girl from the Suburbs a taste for the cut and thrust of city working.
After gaining experience through internships at various PR agencies, she finally found her ideal match here on the digital team at PrettyGreen. With a passion for all things digital, Lauren wants to make her mark in the field.
When she isn’t working hard at the office, Lauren spends her time watching documentaries about Mermaids and Aliens and writing on her blog.
She can also occasionally be found hitting pads at her local Muay Thai gym (despite her small arms and poor hand eye co-ordination).
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Leigh Ireland
Senior Account Manager
Leigh digressed from early aspirations of becoming a journalist (and before that a physio) to take the plunge into the world of marketing and sponsorship upon graduation from his Sport Studies degree. After gaining experience with Pitch and then Capitalize, he joined the PrettyGreen Sport and Consumer team to find himself working with his beloved Tottenham Hotspur FC through key client, Under Armour.
Having worked on an array of sports from taekwondo, squash and water polo to cricket and sailing in his five years in the industry, he is now enjoying turning his hand to the more mainstream challenges presented by football and rugby sponsorships. Whatever the sport, or brand, Leigh enjoys adding some ‘alternative thinking’ to the creative process.
His favourite working experience to-date was watching Mark Cavendish demolish his opposition to fly over the Tour de France finish line, during his time with the HTC-Highroad Professional Cycling Team.
If he isn’t at his desk, he is likely to be found visiting some of the wilder places in the world. Either that or on a court, pitch or climbing wall.
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Emma White
Account Director
Emma has worked across film and consumer PR for the last 6 years. Working on integrated campaigns for brands including; Air New Zealand, Mothercare, Red Bull and La Senza. Her film experience spans unit, talent handling, theatrical, DVD and premieres. Having worked with the likes of Universal, Paramount, EOne, Fox Searchlight, STUDIOCANAL and the BAFTA Film and Television awards, she can now be found working on the PrettyGreen Culture team.
In her spare time she has turned her hand to producing short films, primarily helping with raising finance her favourite part is unsurprisingly building connections, bringing her love of brands and film together.
A passionate Chelsea FC fan, she grew up on heavy metal only to recently discover a deep routed love for Taylor Swift. Now a permanent resident of Stoke Newington, she can often be found at the weekend cycling around Hackney with her little terrier Dylan in her rucksack. He loves it. Honest.
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Zoë Barrett
PA & Office Manager
After graduating with a photography degree from Bournemouth Arts Institute, Zoë worked as an Account Manager for Spectrum Photographic in Brighton. She then worked as a PA for various creative organisations. A deep thinker and fascinated with psychology and spirituality, she pursued training as a gestalt counsellor. During her training she also worked as an Office Manager.
Zoë brings her organisational skills and experience of supporting people to PrettyGreen. She also brings her sense of humor and the cake when it’s needed!
When Zoë isn’t running our beautiful office, she is photographing everything and anything she deems ‘magical’ (most things in her eyes). She claims to have photographed a real life unicorn in London. Zoë loves the gym, ridiculous YouTube clips, prosecco, 90s hip-hop and sexy salads. Her friends and family come first, and now the PrettyGreen family too.