The Union has promoted four of its senior management team to the boards of its businesses. This is the first time new Directors have been appointed for many years and represents a planned approach to succession, as well as a careful development the Union Group of businesses.

Louise Killough, The Union’s Client Services Director, is appointed to the board of Union Advertising. Louise has been with the agency for over 16 years, and now leads the agency account management team. She also leads on client development and the agency’s financial performance. She has considerable client experience across many sectors, including Scottish Government, Quality Meat Scotland, VisitScotland, Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), Scottish Enterprise, Reebok, Warburtons and Highland Spring.  Louise is also a Fellow of the Marketing Society Scotland, and heavily involved in both the IPA and Marketing Society Scotland trade bodies.

Emma Campbell, Client Services Director in Union Direct, is appointed to the Union Direct board. She will work with the agency’s MD, Gus Chalmers, and Creative Director, Sheryl Thomson, to further grow Scotland’s pre-eminent customer engagement agency. Emma brings in-depth knowledge of the financial services sector working with client such as Scottish Widows and Bank of Scotland as well as across clients such as Business Stream, Velux, NHS, Scottish Development International, Scottish Government and Scottish SPCA.

Michael Hart, Creative Director of The Union, who was appointed to The Union board in 2013, now also joins the board of Union Connect, the field marketing and partnership specialist agency. He will help to develop the agency’s experiential creative product and drive innovation in face-to-face customer marketing.

Finally, Heather Blair, who has been Finance Director of the Union Group for the last four years, is promoted to the boards of all four Union businesses; The Union, Union Direct, Union Connect and Union Data.  Heather has over 25 years of experience, first in practice, and then business.  Prior to joining the Union team she was a Board Director at 20:20 Opticians, where she helped drive the expansion and sale of the company.

From left: Louise Killough, Emma Campbell, Michael Hart, Heather Blair.

The new Directors join the agency’s Chairman, Ian McAteer, plus Gus Chalmers (MD of Union Direct) and Daniel Batey (MD of Union Data), in steering the future direction of the Group. 

The Union Group has successfully negotiated a challenging 2020, delivering strong profits and strengthening its balance sheet. Success has continued in 2021, with a 55% pitch conversion rate and numerous awards won. These included four Golds, one Silver and one Bronze at the 2021 Marketing Society Star Awards, where the the agency was also named Scotland’s Agency of the Year. New clients and new projects on-boarded this year include VisitScotland, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, Scotland Food & Drink, St John Scotland, The Goethe Institute, SEPA, Borders College, Glasgow Life and Seafood Scotland.

The Union was named Agency of the Year in 2021.

Ian McAteer, the agency’s Chairman, said, “These appointments delight me. First I am thrilled to see our home-grown talent reach the top rung of our business; through their commitment, dedication and sheer ability over the years. Secondly, it shows that the business, after 25 years, is able to evolve and refresh its leadership team, which is the key to success. And finally, it is also a positive step to be able to address the gender balance in our board set-up. I’m also personally delighted; I couldn’t hope to work with a better group of colleagues.”