LONDON – UK PR agency Cirkle has appointed Text100’s deputy managing director Ruth Kieran as its new MD. She joins on 26 February and replaces Ruth Allchurch, who left the agency in September.

Previously deputy MD at Lexis, which merged with Text100 in June last year, Kieran has more than 20 years’ consumer and corporate brand reputation experience. She started her career as a media buyer with McCann-Erickson and spent 12 years at Kindred, where she was managing partner.

Kieran will sit on Cirkle’s five-strong board. As well as driving growth she will oversee the agency’s existing client portfolio, including Premier Foods, GSK, PepsiCo, Ferrero, Morrisons, Pernod Ricard UK and Bosch Smart Home, which Cirkle won last week.

Cirkle chairman Caroline Kinsey said: “I’m truly delighted. Ruth has the right mix of experience for us and she’s also a great cultural fit. We’ve just gone through a huge exercise of establishing our new company values, so that was really important. Her leadership style is calm, empathetic and collaborative, and those EQ skills are more important than ever, especially because we take employee engagement and satisfaction so seriously. She’s also very focused and driven and I know she will be single minded in taking us through to the next chapter of growth."

Kinsey, who has been fulfilling MD responsibilities while the agency looked for a new MD, said she was looking forward to returning to the role of chairman: “I’ve been very client facing since September and I’m going to fully embrace my role as chairman again, mapping out the vision and strategy for our future growth and the culture of the agency. Winning Bosch was a gamechanger, and we have ambitious plans for the business.”

Kieran said: “I’ve watched Cirkle’s achievements with admiration and I am extremely excited to join an agency with such a talented and ambitious team. I look forward to working together to unlock further opportunities and continue its successful journey.”