Klive co-founder and chief executive Chris Ward is stepping down after nearly four years at the business, which was launched as a “new breed of agency” designed to marry data, tech, creative, innovation and strategy.
Klive – an abbreviation of Knowledge.Live – was co-founded by Ward, chief creative officer Chris Martin and chief strategy officer David Brown in 2017 but did not launch officially until November 2018.
Together, the founders have a combined 60 years’ industry experience, gained at some of the UK’s leading agencies.
Ward had spells at Rapp, CDP, BBH and CMW before co-founding Personal in 2004 and Abundance in 2010. He then joined River Group as chief innovation officer and has been an advisor to the board of global technology innovation company Glorious Labs since 2016.
He will still be a named founder, shareholder and an advisor to the board of Klive but will not be working directly on any client business going forwards.
Ward plans to launch a new company in January 2022 called Hibiscus London. Described as the “value challenge company”, Hibiscus will work with brands and agencies on a consultative basis.
He has most recently been made a Trustee of The Arts Society and Ward will fulfil this role alongside his other non-exec positions, in addition to running Hibiscus with the other, as-yet-unnamed co-founders.
Ward said: “I’m immensely proud of what we have built at Klive. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with David and Chris to build a great team of people working with some phenomenal brands, including Migrant Help, Abbott Pharmaceuticals and Collinson, producing domestic and international communication programmes.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has helped shape Klive to what it is and stands for today.”
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