Fred trained as a product designer, graduating with a 1st Class Honours Degree from Southbank University in London.
Whilst organising and running the degree show event for his course he made contact with PDD, Europe’s foremost product innovation agency, and joined the company immediately after graduation. During his time at PDD Fred worked on some of the first mobile phone handsets for Panasonic Europe, mould-breaking ruggedised electronics for marine equipment manufacturer Navico and a range of instant camera products for Polaroid.
In 1997 Fred moved to transport consultancy Design Acumen where he led a number of aerospace interiors programmes. Design Acumen was fortunate enough to head up extensive developments for household names such as Airbus and British Airways, launching the world’s first fully flat first class airline seating system for the latter.
Following his time working in industrial design, Fred moved to New York, launching and running North American operations for award-winning new media agency Deepend. During his time in the USA he won and oversaw projects for Citibank, Solomon Smith Barney, Fuji, MTV and fashion retailer Kenneth Cole.
In 2001 Fred moved back to London as COO of Deepend’s holding company, Deepgroup. Over 7 years Deepgroup grew into a £12M business employing over 300 people based in 8 cities making it the largest independent digital agency worldwide.
Deepend also achieved many creative merits as it grew. In 1999 it was voted the number one digital design agency in the UK by Design Week magazine, and by 2000 Advertising Age International rated Deepend as the number one digital creative agency worldwide. In these two years alone Deepend won over 20 international creative accolades including two coveted D&AD yellow pencils (Volkswagen Beetle, Design Museum), a Milia d’Or (Cartoon Network) as well as a Bafta, four BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) awards and being voted Campaign Magazine agency of the year in 1999.
Following Deepgroup Fred took the role of COO at Swedish advertising agency Dowell Stubbs, where he was responsible for operations in Malmo, Gothenburg and their headquarters in Stockholm. It was here that Fred developed his passion for bringing high levels of creativity and innovation into business-to-business communications – something he continues to specialise in to this day.
Fred once again joined forces with Deepgroup CEO Gary Lockton within strategic digital consultancy Seriously along with Joanna Baldwin, former Senior VP for global business development Publicis Worldwide. The combination of ‘Brand Marketing and Digital thinking’ offered by Seriously provided opportunities to work with clients such as MSN, Yahoo!, BUPA, Times Online and Dixons Stores Group International.
In 2008 Seriously merged with ex-Deepgroup company Last Exit New York to form a London based operation of the expanded group. Last Exit offers a range of strategically led digital and marketing services to clients ranging from Unilever to Fortis, Paramount to Panasonic, McCann Ericson to Dentsu and from Piaggio to Toyota. The agency is particularly known for its innovations in the areas of PaperVision3D (a web 2.0 Flash plug-in technology) and a range of tools helping clients to make sense of the complex area of Search Engine Optimisation.
