After spending five years as Y&R Wellington’s general manager and 19 years at the agency in total, Grant Maxwell has moved over to Uprise Digital to take up the position of client services director, where he started this week.
According to a release, Maxwell is already a familiar face around the Uprise office, being a good friend of founders Tim Pointer and Matt Rowe, and he instigated the current business partnership between Uprise and Y&R.
Before he was general manager he was director of MEC Wellington, Y&R’s media arm.
Y&R Wellington managing director Tim Ellis says Y&R is excited for Maxwell in his new role at Uprise. “We work very closely with the Uprise team on a number of key clients, so while we might farewell Maxwell from our building, we will no doubt continue a very strong working relationship with him over the road at Uprise.”
Maxwell will focus on managing and growing existing client relationships and identifying new opportunities for Uprise, the release says.
It’s unclear who will replace Maxwell at Y&R Wellington.
Y&R NZ CEO and CCO Josh Moore told StopPress: “Grant’s contribution to our Wellington offer is beyond measure. He started with the agency back when it was Goldsack Harris in 1997 and led our Wellington based media team for over a decade. He’s genuinely one of nicest guys in the business so it’s great he’s joining the Uprise team, who we joint venture with on a number of clients.”
Moore says Y&R will be making an announcement about Maxwell’s replacement shortly.
Maxwell says his interests lie in measurement and accountability for digital communications, so the move to Uprise is a perfect fit.
“As client services director I’ll be working with our current clients to help improve our offering to them and working with the rest of the Uprise team to tweak a customer’s digital strategy to ensure they are getting the best results possible,” he says.
“I was attracted to Uprise because they are genuinely helping companies do better business online, and that–doing better business, and being genuine–is what excites me.”
He says he decided to leave Y&R because 19 years is a long time to be in one place and it was “a case of trying to go and flex the muscle and learn some other stuff, so I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to jump in,” he says.
“There’s a bunch of people out there that want to make a quick buck on new stuff that’s out there [and with Uprising]I was just seeing a genuine desire to do the right thing … so it’s not just best practice, it’s coming from the right place in terms of heart and philosophy.”
Uprise co-founder Tim Pointer says Maxwell is perfectly placed to support the company’s future growth plans.
“We’ve got big ambitions both here and abroad and having someone of the calibre of Grant will help us ensure our clients remain at the centre of everything we do as we grow.”
