Parkinson, who joins from Fresh Group, started in the newly-created role two weeks ago. As part of her remit, she will be in charge of developing the agency’s event offering.
Also joining the company is Laura Bailey, formerly of Owl Live, who has been recruited as senior event producer, as well as new digital manager Ian Austin. Steve Hartley, previously head of creative services at Liverpool FC, has joined as head of creative and will work across HGA’s events, design, film and video and digital businesses.
Gemma McCall, HGA’s head of business development, told Event the events team has doubled in size in the last 12 months to six members of staff, which includes event producers and technicians.
"We have ambitious plans for the next year," McCall added. "We are looking to employ more staff to our events team."
She explained HGA predominantly focuses on internal and employee engagement events, but is looking to work on more public-facing events in the future.
The news comes after the agency marked its 25th year with record-breaking sales and profits. HGA reported sales of £2.5m and EBITDA profits of almost £400,000, slightly ahead of the company’s three-year plan to treble the business by 2016.
Michael Henderson, managing director of HGA, said: "It has been a truly memorable year for us in so many ways, and we have taken the time to celebrate what we have been told is a rare occurrence – a creative services business that lasts a quarter of a century in the ownership and management of its founders.
"We know that we have good levels of client satisfaction and retention – and are determined that more people know about the outstanding work and value that we deliver. From now on in we are going to shout a little more about what we are up to."
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