Karen Crum elevated to global brand strategy director at McCann
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McCann has promoted Karen Crum to the newly created position of global brand strategy director
During her tenure as head of strategy at McCann London, she has spearheaded strategy, and led teams behind numerous award-winning campaigns for the likes of Microsoft, Xbox and Mastercard, helping to take home the 2018 Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the inaugural Creative eCommerce category for Xbox “Design Lab Originals: The Fanchise Model”, following it up with Gold in Creative Effectiveness in 2019.
Crum’s strategic leadership is fuelled by a rare blend of experiences – she’s a musician who’s been featured on BBC 6 Music, and started out as a Bioinformatician at a biotech company that built algorithms to analyse the human genome. She was drawn to advertising and communications where she was able to use her creative streak to help solve brand and business problems.
Crum will now report to Harjot Singh, chief strategy officer, Europe and UK, at McCann Worldgroup EMEA.
Commenting on Crum’s new role Harjot said: “As we continue to build an even stronger, globally networked, centre of gravity in Europe around integrated, strategic excellence for our largest global clients, Karen’s proven track record and potential place her in a position of strength to be at the forefront of this mission. I am very happy to have her onboard.”
Theo Izzard-Brown, chief strategy officer at McCann London added: “In her tenure as Head of Strategy Karen has been a rockstar. Her contribution to creating a culturally healthy, not to mention future-fit planning department cannot be understated. Replacing Karen as head of department will be a tall order.”
