Mike Bell (formerly of Nexus) joins FutureDeluxe as EP, while Joel Dennis (hailing from Sid Lee) fills Forever’s newly created role of Global Head of Growth.
Experimental design studio FutureDeluxe and its new group partner, Forever, have announced the upcoming arrival of two high-profile hires: Mike Bell as Executive Producer for FutureDeluxe and Joel Dennis as Global Head of Growth for Forever.
As Executive Producer, Bell will report to FutureDeluxe’s new Managing Director, James Murray. Bell’s responsibilities will include building stronger relationships with FutureDeluxe’s existing client roster (which includes Apple, BBC, Google, Nike and Sonos) and expanding the roster with new clients and opportunities, while also further developing the studio’s offering and skillsets. Bell previously served as Executive Producer at Nexus Studios and Electric Theatre Collective, and has worked on BAFTA, D&AD and British Arrows award-winning projects that include BBC Tokyo Olympics, Gorillaz’s “Cracker Island” album launch and BackMarket’s recent “Monster” campaign.
Following Forever’s January 2023 launch, the newly created role of Global Head of Growth will see Dennis take responsibility for growing the business and expanding the global group’s footprint both internally and externally. Reporting to Forever’s UK-based CEO, James Callahan, Dennis was previously Director for Growth & Innovation at Sid Lee. Having worked across automotive, ecommerce, and tech, Dennis brings a wealth of sales and business development experience, alongside expertise in sales process improvement.
“Mike has wealth of experience and has won every award going,” said Murray. “He’s a producer with incredible leadership skills who manages to remain humble about his impressive craft and passionate about the need for experimentation. So, he’s a perfect fit for FutureDeluxe’s people-first focus and constant investment into R&D.”
Bell stated, “I’m delighted to be joining FutureDeluxe at this truly exciting stage in their development as a creative studio. Having closely followed their progress in crafting technically innovative, emotionally engaging CGI, I’ve also been aware of how hard they’ve worked to establish an experimentally focused, people-first working environment. It’s this dedication to both culture and craft that made joining FutureDeluxe irresistible.”
“As a new group, Forever is at an incredibly exciting stage of development,” said Callahan. “Although we’re only four months old, we’ve already achieved an impressive first quarter, winning some prestigious projects, creating Amazon Prime motion branding and developing product launch campaigns for Hublot, Cashapp, Nike and Estee Lauder. All this, plus an insane promo for Bjork. With Joel now on board, our growth is set to be unstoppable.”
Dennis stated, “As someone who works in the business development side of the creative industry, I rarely get the opportunity to help position a product that is best-in-class and boasts a top-notch workplace culture. Not only that, but Forever’s leadership team were very quickly able to show me what they’re looking to achieve in the coming years and how they envisage me becoming part of their mission. Alongside Forever’s unbelievable portfolio and stellar team, joining the group at this crucial stage of its development was an instant no-brainer.”
Source: FutureDeluxe
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
