O Strengthens Team With Trio of New Appointments

Having invested £650,000 in to a new space and staff hires in 2018 to support future growth in its creative and digital services, O has continued to go from strength-to-strength with significant new client wins in fashion retail, clean energy and fintech sectors in recent months.

Amongst the new additions is Aranda Rahbarkouhi who joins the firm as a senior account manager. Aranda brings with her over 20 years’ experience in journalism and PR, with a career working as a multimedia business journalist at The Chronicle and Journal before moving into a consultancy role and eventually joining a local law firm as PR manager.

Commenting on her appointment, Aranda said: “Having experienced life on both sides of the PR fence, that of journalism, PR agency and in-house, I have known the team at O Communications for a long time.

“One of my main reasons for wanting to join them was that the company’s values aligned with my own. Most companies have a list of values on their website, but the team at O have consistently demonstrated these in real life over the years and for me that was why I joined. I am now looking forward to an exciting new chapter in my career and working with a whole range of new clients.”

Laurie Spedding also joins the O team as PR executive, having been at Middleton Lodge Estate in Yorkshire. Her new role will see her work across the agency’s consumer client portfolio in residential property, retail, hospitality and travel.

Recent Media Production (Film and Television) Masters graduate Lauren Maggorie has joined the agency as content creator in the agency’s creative department on digital design and video creation.

Kari Owers, managing director at O, said: “We’re constantly looking to innovate and grow by attracting the region’s top talent and I’m so pleased to welcome three new faces to strengthen our already amazing team.

“Our aim is to ensure that our clients have the very best experience working with an agency so we hire great people who are ‘seriously creative’, meaning they are brimming with ideas but know how to harness them to drive the right returns to our client’s business.”

O was founded in 2005 and has won over 60 industry awards, including being shortlisted in Best Agency Outside of London at the PR Week Awards in both 2017 and 2018, as well as being named as Best Small Company in the North East in the Journal Best Places to Work Awards last year.

The agency works with high-profile clients including Flymo, Parkdean Resorts, intu Eldon Square and Metrocentre and the British Masters.