Instinctif Partners appoints new Group Head of Digital Rich Rust; promotes Anna Younger to Group Head of Innovation and Creativity

Instinctif Partners is bolstering its digital and creative offering to support its growth, appointing two new senior Group-level roles: Rich Rust as Group Head of Digital and Anna Younger as Group Head of Innovation and Creativity.

Rich Rust is a digital communications and marketing professional with over 17 years’ experience of driving positive change for global organisations. Rich’s experience spans consulting with agencies such as Ogilvy, Edelman and Hill & Knowlton, to holding a number of in-house leadership roles for global organisations including Nissan in Europe and the Middle East, Jaguar Land Rover, Ericsson and most recently DP World. Rich led the global digital and social media team and subsequently established a Marketing Communications function for the Digital Logistics & Technology business. Rich also has specialist experience in executive positioning through digital engagement as well as crisis and issues preparedness and management. Outside of work Rich is a formation skydiving coach & competitor.

Anna Younger first joined Instinctif in 2016 to establish the business’s UK Innovation team and following the success of this practice over the last five years has now been promoted into the role of Group Head of Innovation and Creativity. She is passionate about harnessing the latest in new thinking and technology to deliver smart, innovative and future-proof solutions for her clients. Under her leadership, the Innovation team developed a range of new specialisms across strategic, creative, and technical disciplines, becoming the agency’s hub for advanced analytics and audience mapping, strategic brand development, multichannel creative campaigns and digital targeting. Previously, Anna was Head of Digital and Creative services at specialist professional services firm Infinite Global (formerly Spada).

Ed Amory, CEO, said: “The communications landscape is evolving rapidly and having a forward-thinking, world class digital offer is central to our ambitions for Instinctif. Rich brings a wealth of experience across digital disciplines and sectors. He joins a powerful existing set of digital practitioners across all our practices, at a time of strong growth for the business, and I’m looking forward to working with him to deliver impactful support for our clients.

Anna will be working with teams across the business to develop new products to meet rapidly changing client requirements. She will concentrate on developing our response to client focus on data, and on considering how the consultancy model will evolve in conjunction with other professional advisory firms in the future. She will also take responsibility for developing a more creative culture across the Group. I’m delighted that Anna has agreed to take on this new and important role.”

Rich commented “I am delighted to be joining Instinctif at such an exciting time in its development.  With an excellent roster of clients and an exceptionally strong team already in place, I am very much looking forward to being part of the business and to driving the growth of the digital practice to the next level.”

Anna commented: “I’m thrilled to be Instinctif’s first Group Head of Innovation and Creativity. Having grown the UK Innovation team from the ground up and developed the business’s centre for digital excellence, I am looking forward to the opportunity to embed creativity further into our culture. I am excited to propel innovative thinking globally, helping clients to solve their challenges of today and tomorrow.”

Instinctif Partners is independently owned, with the majority stake held by private equity firm LDC.