March 2024

Welcome to the team Debs!

Welcome our newest addition to the team, Debs! We caught up with her to find out about her comms experience and what excites her about joining Schon&Co.

A second piece of exciting news at Schon&Co in as many weeks, as we welcome experienced corporate communications specialist Deborah Burgess to our team! 

Debs, as everyone calls her, joins us with 15 years experience spanning the communications industry, having worked on briefs as diverse as crisis and issues for a large insolvency practitioner, to giving the Andrex puppy a voice on Twitter.

In recent years, she has focussed her attention on a variety of campaigns, narrative development and story-telling for businesses across multiple sectors including transport and logistics, technology, engineering and professional services. 

Debs’ comms experience speaks for itself, so we thought we’d use this opportunity to find out a bit more about what Debs is excited about as she joins the Schon&Co team.

Debs, you and Jess know each other from a previous agency life - what has led your paths to cross again?

Yes - for our sins Jess and I spent the best part of five years working together at a previous agency, and I think in that time we established ourselves as a really effective team, did great work, and had a lot of fun along the way. We both have the same personal values; we’re completely no-nonsense and down to earth, but are also aligned professionally in terms of the work we want to do for clients and the high bar that we will always set on standards. 

I’m not sure I can call myself seasoned just yet, but I’ve certainly been around long enough to know what’s important to me in an employer, and what I think good looks like from a client service perspective.

When I was looking for my next move, I knew it was absolutely essential for me to find somewhere that reflected that, but also didn’t look like the classic big agency model I was used to. It didn’t take me long to find myself chatting to Jess about the work the team are doing at Schon&Co, and how I might fit in, and now here I am!

What do you think sets Schon&Co apart in terms of its approach?

I remember talking to Jess about her belief that corporate communications can, and should, be better, and I really do think this is what sets the team here apart. Jess has created a culture where everyone is empowered, but also has the time and flexibility to be interested in and care about each client brief, and that shows in the results they’re delivering for clients.

I hope I can strengthen this by bringing the best bits of my big agency background and training to our smaller team structure, without losing sight of what makes the agency so special.

What are you particularly looking forward to working on?

I’ve always loved the day-to-day client work, getting stuck into every aspect of a client’s brief, so I’m glad that’ll still be a part of my professional life. But I’m also looking forward to working with Jess, Jim and the rest of the team to grow the business.

I hope by adding a bit more headspace, energy and experience, we can be really deliberate in our strategy, build on the great success Schon&Co has already had, but still sweat the small stuff that we know matters. 

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