Who am I?
A creative, results-driven, and award-winning marketing leader with 20 years of global experience bringing the world’s most loved spirits brands to life. With a deep passion for design, branding, and strategy, I’ve led teams, built businesses, and shaped iconic campaigns that connect brands to audiences in never-been-done-before ways.
I thrive on solving challenges, building relationships, and driving creative excellence—whether that’s through agency management, brand strategy, integrated marketing, or business development. Known for my optimism, unflappable focus, and energy that raises spirits (quite literally!), I am obsessed with results and cultivating high-performing team cultures—with a deep love for Bourbon to top it off.
My Journey
My career began with a passion for Graphic Design—not just as an art form, but as a powerful tool for communication. Studying design at university instilled in me a problem-solving mindset, and that way of thinking has shaped everything I’ve done since.
Breaking into the Spirits World
I landed my first role as a graphic designer at Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine, working in their global design team on some of the industry’s most iconic brands—Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier, Beefeater, Malibu, Laphroaig. It was here that I discovered my love for the drinks industry and how design, storytelling, and branding come together to build legendary brands.
When Jim Beam Brands acquired Allied Domecq in 2006, everything changed. I started working more closely with the American market and was part of a major evolution—turning an internal design team into a professional, self-sustaining in-house creative agency with its own identity and funding model. As a co-founder of this agency, I realised I had a decision to make:
🎨 Stay in design?
💡 Or build something bigger?
I chose the latter.
Building Proof: A Global Creative Agency
Taking on a client services leadership role, I became the face of the agency, leading relationships and shaping strategy. We named the agency Proof and set out to build one of the industry’s first fully integrated, in-house marketing agencies—years ahead of its time.
Expanding the business to the US, I helped establish a full agency operation in Chicago—the workhorse of Proof. Over the years, we grew from a $100k turnover in 2007 to an $8M agency with 45+ team members, evolving alongside Jim Beam’s transformation into Beam Suntory and later its acquisition by Suntory Holdings.
During my time at Proof, we delivered groundbreaking, award-winning work for global brands, from Maker’s Mark to Jim Beam, Laphroaig to Bowmore, Courvoisier to the House of Suntory portfolio. Scaling the agency and leading it through major industry changes was one of my proudest achievements.
Life After Suntory: A New Chapter
After 20 years at Beam Suntory, leaving at the end of 2023 was a monumental change—but also the best decision I could have made. It was the push I needed to continue evolving, take on new challenges, and bring my expertise to a wider audience.
That’s why I founded Overproof Communications—a boutique consultancy helping agencies and drinks brands refine their brand strategy, strengthen creative excellence, and improve collaboration between agencies and marketing teams.
Since then, I’ve been partnering with leading agencies and brands, including Wonderworks Communications, working alongside Sarah and Miranda to drive creative impact for some of the most exciting names in the drinks world. I’ve also been providing strategic consultancy to Suntory and other brands, helping them navigate today’s fast-changing landscape.
It’s been an exciting and rewarding journey so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Expertise
Total Agency Management • Thought Leadership • People Leadership • Creative Strategy • Global Brand Building • Consumer First/Idea Centric Foundational Approach • Financial and Growth Accountability • Business Development • Entrepreneurial Mindset • New and Traditional Media • Process Improvement • Problem Solving • Creative Agency Expert • Packaging Design and Production
Career Highlights
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Business Director
As Business Director and part of the Senior Leadership Team, I lead client acquisition efforts with a strategic focus on securing partnerships with major global drinks companies, including spirits, beer, wine, and soft drink brands. I oversee the delivery of annual fiscal targets, manage sales pipelines, and support the organic growth of existing client accounts. Additionally, I play a central role in managing budgets for training, staff welfare, and marketing initiatives.
Key responsibilities include:
New Business Development: Leading efforts to acquire high-value clients and establishing Wonderworks as an agency of record for key global brands.
Client Onboarding & Relationship Management: Ensuring the seamless onboarding of new clients, guiding the transition to account teams, and supporting long-term relationship growth.
Operational Excellence: Supporting cross-functional teams in developing high-quality, profitable, and creatively inspiring work, while identifying and mitigating challenges in timelines and budgets.
Team Leadership: Mentoring and developing team members across the business, ensuring alignment with the agency’s vision and fostering a positive, high-performance culture.
Strategic Oversight: Providing expert insight for strategic development and high-stakes brand initiatives, leveraging deep industry knowledge to enhance creative direction and storytelling.
With a consultative approach to leadership, I focus on purposeful engagement, ensuring my contributions complement the team rather than duplicate efforts. My involvement is tailored to strategic touchpoints, including new client presentations, major initiatives, and key decision-making moments.
By fostering strong internal and external partnerships, I help deliver high-impact work that consistently exceeds expectations and drives business growth.
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Founder and Managing Director
After a successful 20-year career building iconic spirits brands and leading global marketing efforts at Suntory Global Spirits, I founded Overproof Communications to share the deep expertise I had gained across brand development, agency management, and creative strategy.
Overproof Communications is a boutique consultancy that primarily collaborates with agencies and spirits companies seeking guidance on:
Brand Strategy Development: Crafting effective, insight-driven brand strategies that resonate with target audiences and drive long-term equity growth.
Creative Excellence: Helping marketers and agencies improve the quality and impact of their creative work by enhancing briefing processes, storytelling, and strategic clarity.
Operational Efficiency: Supporting agencies in refining internal processes and team structures to improve operational performance and client satisfaction.
Agency-Client Collaboration: Bridging the gap between marketing teams and agencies to foster better partnerships, ensuring seamless communication, shared goals, and impactful outcomes.
By offering tailored consultancy services, Overproof Communications helps clients unlock their full potential—whether through refining a brand’s positioning, building a high-performing agency team, or launching bold new creative campaigns.
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Group Account Director, Senior Account Director, Account Director, Account Supervisor
• Founded and helped lead a highly successful global in-house creative agency for Beam Suntory for 19 years with a turnover of $8m (largest marketing agency by annual billings on roster)
• Responsible for P&L, short and long-term planning, revenue growth, agency scope negotiations and planning, operational, efficiencies, data analysis, and overall agency performance.
• Led and developed cross-functional teams in multiple locations around the world (London, Frankfurt, Chicago, New York) to deliver impactful creative and design solutions for major global brands (Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Courvoisier, House of Suntory Portfolio)
• Partnered with seasoned planners to inspire creative and design teams with impactful creative strategy grounded in actionable insights
• Developed successful brand activations for key global markets across all key spirits category channels including on and off trade, experiential, e-Commerce, Global Travel Retail and trade advocacy experiences
•Crafted custom distillery experiences to help bring brand home-places to life for consumers
• Strategic creative & design partner to the Maker’s Mark & Jim Beam Global Brand Houses acting as brand guardian to all priority markets
• Led complex design projects from packaging innovations, line extensions and promotional packaging to complete new visual identity systems with a deep understanding of the production processes
• Created Maker’s Mark first every Global Holiday Campaign and helped bring to life in key global bourbon markets
Achieved highest ever rating given to an agency partner as part of the annual 2023 agency review
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Account Supervisor, Senior Account Manager, Account Manager, Senior Graphic Designer
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Graphic Designer
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Global Leadership Development Program in Partnership with The Moller Institute, University of Cambridge, LEAP, DiSC, Mastering Management, Five Behaviours, Five Face of Genius, SxSW, IHAF, ANA, One Show
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Staffordshire Uni, School of Arts, Media and Design, 1st Class Bachelor of Arts in Design
