Digitas UK has hired Jane Austin as chief experience officer and Anna Jehan as head of design. Austin will help release the agency’s ambition of creating best-in-class connected experiences, while Jehan will be boosting the standard of visual design across all creative offerings from digital platforms to customer engagement.
Austin’s appointment completes the Digitas executive line up and she will report to U.K. CEO Dani Bassil. Austin has recently worked at Babylon Health, where she was director of product design. During her time there she led a rebrand and redesign, heading the design content and research teams which created the new Babylon app and customer experience. It is now the U.K.’s most valuable start-up set to be worth $4 billion when it lists on Nasdaq.
Since then, Austin held the role of chief design officer at Flo Health, and previously also led digital transformation projects at Telegraph Media Group and MOO.
“I believe Digitas is an agency with incredible potential, combining creativity and the ability to build amazing products as well as the skills to acquire and communicate with customers. My experience in start-ups and digital transformations will allow me to partner with the brilliant team already in place so together we can deliver exemplary work,” said Austin.
“I am also super excited to work alongside Dani and Emma (de la Fosse, CCO), two inspirational women leaders, and to build a truly inclusive agency that harnesses talent from a wide variety of backgrounds so we can create the great work which only comes from a diverse team.”
Bassil said, “Jane’s appointment is a real milestone for Digitas UK, taking our customer experience skill set to a whole new level, and meaning the agency now has board level representation of all the disciplines that clients need to transform their businesses and grow their brands over the coming decade. Her experience is inspiring and her commitment to building inclusive, diverse teams chimes perfectly with our own values.”
Jehan will report to CCO d la Fosse. Jehan joins from Matter of Form, where she was creative director, a role she took up in 2015, heading campaigns including the global digital brand transformation of luxury travel business Belmond, and developing a fully integrated program of work for Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. Before joining Matter of Form, Jehan spent five years at SapientNitro working on brands including Ray-Ban and Marks & Spencer.
De la Fosse said, “The importance of visual design cannot be overstated and that is why we have created this new position and hired Anna to fill it. She’s a brilliant storyteller who uses design to create engaging brand narratives with the experience to apply her talents across all our creative output, including digital products and platforms, customer engagement, e-commerce and comms.”
Jehan said, “Working with fantastically creative and inspiring leadership from Emma and Dani, I’m looking forward to bringing my expertise of beautifully crafted design and brand storytelling to life on such a broad range of clients and projects.”
