Holmes & Marchant has appointed Greg Vallance, founder of Embrace Brands and former executive creative director at Vibrandt, as managing partner—a new role within the agency.

Vallance will work alongside MD Simon Gore, who joined Holmes & Marchant in August 2011, and will report in to John Mathers, CEO of Holmes & Marchant Group for the UK and Europe.

Greg Vallance, managing partner at Holmes & Marchant

He will combine client management responsibilities with overall leadership of the creative team within H&M, working closely with deputy creative director, Richard Hunt. Richard has been successfully running the studio since March 2011, when previous creative director, Nick Hanson moved into a business development role.

The appointment reunites Greg Vallance with Simon Gore, as the pair worked together at Vibrandt (now 1HQ), helping grow the business from £2.5m to £6m in four years.

Prior to founding Embrace Brands and leading the creative team at Vibrandt, Vallance spent eight years as creative director at Dragon Rouge. Before this he was creative director at Landor, working in both its London and San Francisco offices.

“I’m eager to get started in my new role at Holmes & Marchant,” said Vallance. “The agency has a real vibrancy about it—there’s a sense of energy and growth there which will make it a really exciting place to work. The team there has won a number of fantastic projects lately which I can’t wait to get cracking with.”

John Mathers, CEO of Holmes & Marchant Group, added, “In hiring Greg, we’re reuniting a very effective management team, with a proven track record of helping clients grow and develop their brands. And with Simon and Greg working together, we’ve got all the pieces in place to take the agency to the next level. As Greg says, we have been winning some great new business lately and we are going into Q4 in a fantastic position for growth, and producing some brilliant creative work.”