AFFINITY has welcomed Paul Henderson as Head of Operations and member of the Executive Leadership Team.
He brings over two decades of operational and commercial leadership experience to the agency spanning Australia’s most ambitious marketers including Toyota, MasterCard, Foxtel, Qantas, and American Express.
“Plenty of agencies talk about transformation. Few are willing to put real skin in the game,” said Angela Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of AFFINITY. “Paul is that rare breed. Brilliantly commercial, unfailingly rigorous, and genuinely passionate about building systems where client and employee experience are equally prioritised.
“He brings a forensic focus to operational excellence that most agencies talk about, but few ever deliver.”
His career includes co-leading MercerBell under Julie Dormand, and more recently, steering high-growth operations at Smrtr, where he ran a rigorous ISO process and built foundations for scale.
On Henderson’s appointment, Dormand shared: “Paul is an operational asset to a business. His commercial strength, operational due diligence and hunger to learn deeply about new technology and data make him one of the best in the business.
“In a world where operational leaders need to adapt beyond the old rule book, meet stringent ethical and risk procedures whilst also being kind, Paul’s deep expertise will build strong trust for the AFFINITY team and clients.”
Henderson said joining AFFINITY “was a no-brainer”.
“This is a business that does what it says, identifies the right opportunities, executes with precision, and stays until the results are in. The opportunity to help scale this kind of ambition and do it with a leadership team that genuinely values delivering tangible growth, is a rare thing.”
Henderson has also hand-picked Heather Cox to lead the Delivery and Operations team as Delivery Director. Her background includes Enero group agencies Orchard and BMF, as well as Ogilvy. Cox has also managed projects for accounts including KFC and Mitsubishi.
“Heather’s ability to get up to speed and deliver every project with grace and precision has set a new bar for the kind of talent we want at AFFINITY,” said Henderson. “She’s already making us better, and that’s the standard we’re setting.”
Top image: Paul Henderson and Heather Cox