Kaizen appoints new chief executive

Independent digital marketing agency Kaizen, headquartered in London, has promoted Kristi Hoyle to chief executive as it prepares to scale its social and GEO services.

Kristi joined Kaizen five years ago and became managing director just over a year ago, overseeing its evolution from an SEO specialist into a broader digital marketing agency covering SEO, digital PR, social and GEO.

During the past 12 months, the agency has secured clients including NEXT, Skyscanner, MoneySuperMarket and QuidCo, alongside longstanding relationships with global brands including LEGO and adidas.

As chief executive, Kristi will focus on expanding Kaizen’s social and GEO offering while developing Astro, its proprietary AI platform designed to help brands scale their digital capabilities using agentic AI.

She said: “There is so much change in our industry right now, with the fragmentation of search presenting a huge opportunity for Kaizen. 

“We’ve spent the last 12 months diversifying our offering, building out our senior team and setting ourselves up for long term success. 

“There is still so much that we want to build and I couldn’t be more excited to step into the chief executive role and lead the agency through our next period of growth.”

Kristi’s promotion comes as founder and majority shareholder Pete Campbell steps back from his strategy director responsibilities and returns to his role as chair.

Pete will continue to advise Kaizen’s senior leadership team as the agency enters its next phase of growth.

He added: “Kristi has reshaped Kaizen over the last five years, and in this past year as managing director she has reinvented the agency and it is thriving more than ever. 

“She has built an incredible leadership team around her that will enable us to become UK market leaders in GEO, social and agentic AI consultancy to brands. 

“I’m looking forward to backing her as chair.”

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