Havas London Hires 2 Senior Creative Teams

​Havas London has hired two new senior creative teams - Lily Linford-Hurst & Emma Penz and Jonny Durgan & James Rooke.

The four new senior creatives will report directly into executive creative director Dan Cole and global executive creative director, Reckitt, Kate Pozzi, and will work on a variety of Havas London’s accounts, and across the agency’s pitches.

Both teams join Havas London’s creative department on a permanent basis after a brief stint of freelancing at the agency.

Lily and Emma joined forces in 2024 to take on the world of freelancing together. Since then, they’ve worked at Ogilvy, Mother, FCB Inferno and NCA, across a variety of clients such as Škoda, Google Pixel and Snapchat.

They have over 13 years of experience between them and have worked separately at some of the industry's top agencies including adam&eveDDB, Droga5, and BBC Creative - cutting their teeth on accounts like Walkers, The BBC, John Lewis, Paddy Power, P&O Cruises, Lloyds Bank and Amazon.

Throughout their careers, they’ve earned recognition at major industry shows including Cannes Lions, D&AD, the British Arrows, Campaign Big Awards and the Clios.

Jonny and James also partnered up as a creative duo whilst freelancing in 2022. During that time, they’ve worked at the likes of Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Groupe, FCB, VCCP and Grey.

Prior to the world of freelancing, James was a creative director for six years at Karmarama (now Droga5) working on Confused.com, Auto Trader, Kenco and the British Army – where his ‘Your Army Needs You’ campaign wowed industry judges across the board, including at Cannes Lions.

Before freelancing, Jonny honed his craft at BBH, RKCR and Ogilvy. He won coveted D&AD pencils for his work with Yeo Valley at BBH and Sipsmith at Ogilvy.

Lily Linford-Hurst and Emma Penz, senior creatives, Havas London said, “We’re so excited to be joining Havas London. The agency’s creative collaborative spirit makes it the perfect place for us to do our best work, and we can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Jonny Durgan and James Rooke, senior creatives, Havas London added, “We’re thrilled to join the team at Havas London. The chance to join the agency’s ambitious creative culture was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”

On the appointment of the new hires, Mark Whelan, chairman and UK group chief creative officer, Havas London, said: “Lily, Emma, Jonny and James bring different shaped thinking to the agency - both as individuals and as creative teams. They've already made their mark on the creative department, and seeing the work in the pipeline tells of good things to come.’’