Elmwood appoints global president to drive international growth

Schreiber (pictured) joins Elmwood from his position as managing director of Chicagobased consultancy Brandimage. He has just returned to the US after a tour of Elmwood’s offices in Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Melbourne and New York.

Schreiber will be based in the US, orchestrating design consultancy acquisitions and office openings in Asia and the US. He is currently establishing a second US office in Chicago and overseeing investment in Elmwood’s existing New York site.

Meanwhile, the group is looking to drive a European expansion programme from its London office.

Under the initiative ‘one Elmwood’, the consultancy hopes to ‘evolve its business model’ to ‘align ourselves around clients rather than offices’, according to Schreiber.

The consultancy, which specialises in branding and also offers packaging and some digital services, hopes to broaden its offer to include complementary disciplines such as retail design.

‘Our clients expect access to our collective expertise no matter where it resides, so any competencies we add will be leveraged by the entire firm,’ says Schreiber.

The consultancy reveals that it made some redundancies earlier this year, and also claims that 40 per cent of its revenue has come from overseas in the past 12 months.

Elmwood chairman Jonathan Sands says, ‘Despite tough conditions at home, which have seen Elmwood go through a first round of cost-cutting involving consultation on redundancies, we are looking at further office openings overseas.’ Sands adds that the weak pound means that there has ‘never been a better time to export British design skills’.

Schreiber says, ‘With the market and economy in such a state of flux, now is the time for bold moves – it would be a terrible opportunity to waste.’

In May the consultancy made a number of senior appointments, including hiring Elliot Wilson as managing director of the London office and Jonathan Cartwright as managing director in Melbourne.

ELMWOOD’S EVOLVING GLOBAL AMBITIONS:
October 2008 – opens its first US office in New York, earmarking locations in Dubai, Delhi, Switzerland and Hong Kong as further possible locations for new offices
May 2009 – makes a raft of senior appointments to prepare the group for international growth, claiming to be looking particularly at the Middle East and Singapore
October 2009 – appoints Eliot Schreiber to oversee expansion plans in the US and Asia