Steve Hare and Brianna Wells lead new senior hires at Initiative Perth

Initiative Perth has announced a series of new hires into the media agency, reflecting new and consistent client spending as business confidence in 2021 remains strong in Western Australia and nationally.

Steve Hare joins the agency as group business director. He was previously head of publishing, digital trading and cinema at Initiative UK where he led strategy and investment for top-class marketers including Amazon, Carlsberg, Patek Phillippe, LEGO, Converse, Deliveroo and Premier League.

At Initiative Perth Hare (pictured above left) will be client leader for Lotterywest, P&N Bank and Tourism WA, reporting to agency managing director Luke O’Sullivan.

“It’s a massive coup for us to have an executive of Steve’s talent and experience joining the agency,” said O’Sullivan. “He has outstanding media smarts from the front line of the UK and international industries and this will greatly benefit our clients and client teams. The team are all incredibly excited to have him on board.

Hare said he was looking forward to fully engaging with Initiative Perth and its clients. “I’m really excited to be joining Initiative (again) – an agency which is going from strength to strength. I’ve already been welcomed with open arms and cannot wait to start working with great clients producing work we can all be proud of.”

The agency has also hired Brianna Wells (pictured above right) as senior investment partnerships manager. She joins Initiative from UM Sydney and will focus on RAC Insurance business divisions. She is a highly regarded executive and in her previous role was focused mostly on brands within the Lion portfolio including XXXX, Heineken, Furphy and Tooheys.

Joining Hare and Wells in new roles at Initiative are Sarah Leavesley as investment partnerships executive, Tia Sullivan and Alex Thomassen who both join as investment partnerships associates.

Alongside the investment in new hires, Ali MacKellar (pictured below left) has been elevated within Initiative to team leader across Lotterywest and P&N Bank, bringing her digital media expertise closer to the agency’s core planning product, as well as managing the day to day team.

O’Sullivan (pictured below right) said: “Our team did an exceptional job riding out 2020 and with 2021 starting even stronger, it is critical that we attract the right talent to complement the best media team in town. I’m ecstatic that we’ve got such strong established and emerging talent joining the agency and excited for the great work to come.”