Creative agency Brave, which can trace its roots back to the Billington Cartmell Group, has promoted one-time intern Caroline Paris to the role of executive creative director as it bolsters its team following an office move to Covent Garden.
Paris joined the company in 2008 as an intern and was made permanent within two weeks, marking the start of her career as a junior art director.
She worked her way up from that position to art director, senior art director and has been creative director since 2016. In her new role, Paris will report to Brave managing director Ash Bendelow.
In recent years, she has been responsible for growing UK clients to global accounts, and leading numerous pitch wins, including Procter & Gamble, Age UK, Love Honey, Superdrug, HP, Mattel, World of Tanks and Chambord.
Brave was launched in 1998 by the Billington Cartmell, and retained its name despite Billington rebranding as HeyHuman in 2014. Brave was acquired by SportFive in 2017 and also counts sustainable water organisation Xylem, Netflix, PepsiCo, Motors.co.uk, and LNDR among its clients.
Bendelow said: “From intern to ECD in the same agency is sadly nearly as rare a story as a female ECD. However, I couldn’t be prouder of Caz, her journey, her achievements and now her deserved promotion.
“Caz is a creative rockstar and a living embodiment of what Brave is and what it values most…bravery, empathy, tenacity, and integrity. Both Brave and our clients have been huge benefactors of her growth and talent and I’m super excited about her leading the creative charge for our next chapter in our new Covent Garden home.”
Paris added: “The journey so far has involved just over 13 years of hard work and tenacity. Building long term client relationships, working to be promoted on my own merit, always striving to keep it fresh and to keep growing. None of which would have happened without the support of some of the industry’s best.
“It might be a cliché, but it’s important to me to thank three specific people: Beri Cheetham my first ECD and the person I learnt so much from, Ali Hannan at Creative Equals for lifting me up and showing me what I could be, and of course Ash Bendelow for his unwavering belief and support.”
Related stories
Lovehoney: Time to pleasure the nation in lockdown
Age UK exposes the plight of having no-one to turn to
Lovehoney makes big splash with raunchy new TV ad
