A plethora of new faces heralds the start of the new year across BCD Meetings & Events (BCD M&E) in EMEA and underlines the expansion plans communicated in 2018. The agency, which has recently integrated Grass Roots M&E into one single business entity and has also set its ambitions to double its size in the next two years, is kicking off 2019 with 20 new starters across EMEA.

“We’ve made no secret of our ambitions to increase our presence in the industry across EMEA and of course having the right talent in place is absolutely key to this. As a business, we’re thrilled to welcome Katie, Mark, Arran and all our other new starters to the BCD M&E family. It’s an exciting time to be joining us and we can’t wait for them to bring their experience, knowledge and enthusiasm to the business,” said David Taylor, VP Sales & Marketing.

Katie Knight – Senior Director Life Sciences Centre of Excellence

Katie has over 20 years’ experience across the M&E industry, predominantly in Life Sciences, where she has delivered strategic and operational excellence across all elements of the market. This includes hands on experience and operational delivery/ownership across multiple markets in EMEA, as well as leading and supporting global SMMP bids and successful account growth.

She joins us from a senior position within a major pharmaceutical where she led multiple projects to improve productivity by linking internal compliance tools with event technology to improve end to end process thus delivering savings and driving compliant operations. Her in-depth understanding of events and the Life Sciences industry with her ability to transfer SMMP principles into business-case for any function will be an asset to BCD M&E. “I am really excited to join BCD M&E and leverage the 360 knowledge I’ve gained from my time at CWT and corporate side to drive best in class solutions for our customers,” says Katie.

Mark Scales – Creative Director Creative Solutions EMEA

Mark joins BCD Meetings & Events as Senior Director of Creative Solutions, having most recently spent four years at Banks Sadler as their Head of Event Solutions. With over 18 years in the event industry working at agencies such as Jack Morton and Capita Travel & Events, Mark brings a wealth of experience in developing intelligent and creative solutions for a wide range of clients and was a perfect fit to meet our growing client development strategy for 2019 and beyond.

Upon his appointment, Scales said “the time was absolutely right to move and I’m really excited about the future of BCD Meetings & Events – it is a great agency with some very smart ideas going forward and I am delighted to be able to help realise the growth in their global event strategy.”

Arran Cruickshanks – Account Director

Arran joined the M&E world following a career as a professional sportsman and has held a number of roles within the industry, with responsibilities from account management to operations and client growth. All these experiences have provided him with a fantastic in-depth understanding of the key elements that go into building long-lasting, meaningful client relationships as well as providing him operational experience in delivering events across the globe for some of the world’s largest organisations, particularly in pharmaceuticals and healthcare which gave him unique insight in to the needs of clients. Here’s what Arran tells us about joining us: “I’m really excited to apply my skills and experience within such a clearly passionate, driven and ambitious BCD M&E team.”

David Taylor summarises “the scale of this recruitment is a positive signal about our plans going forward and we’re already working on the induction plans for our new starters in February. It’s genuinely exciting. However, we’re not finished and are always looking for the right talent to join our teams, not only in the UK but across mainland Europe so please don’t hesitate to contact our HR department if you’re interested in joining us email hello@bcdme.com.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.