KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES, UK—Wildfire has promoted Debby Penton to the position of managing director, with former MD and founder Richard Parker taking on the role of CEO.

Penton will now lead Wildfire’s senior management team, which includes original Wildfire founder Lorraine Jenkins, along with David Marsden, Andrew Shephard and Paula Fifield. In addition, Louise Andrews and Chris King are both promoted to associate director.

The moves come four years after the £2m firm was created by the merger of EML and Wildfire, led by EML founder Parker.  "We have made changes to our structure that will help us take full advantage of the skills and experience of all our senior people," he said. "The promotion of Debby Penton to MD and the creation of a management team is a positive change that I’m confident will ensure Wildfire achieves the next step in the agency’s development."

Penton, was was MD of Wildfire prior to the merger, has served as deputy MD of the consultancy for the past year. "This restructure goes hand-in-hand with the evolution of our service proposition, as we develop a multi-disciplinary agency that adds value to every element of the marketing mix for our clients by building awareness, engaging prospects and, ultimately, driving sales," she said. "While we achieved solid growth in the last 12 months, our new structure and proposition means we can really move to the next level in 2016."

In its most recent financial year, Wildfire grew 27%, with new clients including William Hill Online, Violin Memory, Acxiom, Axiell, Waze and Artmotion.