FORMER New Horizon Youth Centre CEO Phil Kerry has been appointed as a Strategic Advisor to The Ripple Effect, moving from client to advisor following a partnership that helped put youth homelessness back on the political agenda.
In the consultancy role, Kerry will work with The Ripple Effect’s leadership team and provide senior strategic counsel to the agency and its clients, drawing on his eight years’ experience leading New Horizon and his wider understanding of the charity sector.
Kerry, who steps down from New Horizon in September after eight years as CEO, previously appointed The Ripple Effect to support the charity’s campaigning and communications as it sought to secure greater political attention for Britain’s youth homelessness crisis.
The relationship went on to produce the award-winning #PlanForThe136K campaign, which contributed to growing political pressure around the issue ahead of the first Commons debate dedicated to youth homelessness in more than 40 years.
The partnership also earned The Ripple Effect PR Partner of the Year at the 2024 Charity Today Awards.
His appointment reflects The Ripple Effect’s ambition to bring more client-side leadership experience into its strategic counsel, complementing the expertise of its communications team with first-hand experience of leading purpose-driven organisations and delivering change.
Frankie Wheeler, Co-Founder of The Ripple Effect, said:
“Phil working with us feels particularly significant because he knows our agency from the other side of the table.
“We didn’t meet Phil through a recruitment process. We met because he trusted us with an issue that really mattered. Together, we worked to take youth homelessness from something struggling for political attention to an issue being discussed by the media, the public and ultimately in Parliament.
“That experience also taught us a huge amount about what charity leaders actually need from communications agencies – not simply coverage, but people who understand their mission, pressures, stakeholders and the change they’re ultimately trying to achieve.
“Phil has spent eight years making those decisions as a CEO. Having access to that perspective as we shape strategies, challenge our thinking and advise clients will make us better strategic partners to the organisations we work with.”
Phil Kerry, Strategic Advisor to The Ripple Effect, added:
“At New Horizon, I saw first-hand what happens when communications is treated as part of organisational strategy rather than something sitting separately from it. Our work together helped take an issue we cared deeply about into the media, into public conversation and ultimately into Parliament.
“After eight years leading New Horizon, I’m looking forward to bringing what I’ve learned about running and growing a charity – and the realities facing leaders across the sector – to an agency I’ve already seen deliver first-hand.
“There is enormous potential for charities and purpose-led organisations to use communications more strategically, and I’m delighted to be working with The Ripple Effect and its clients to realise more of that potential.”
Kerry’s appointment forms part of The Ripple Effect’s wider growth strategy as the agency develops its senior consultancy offer for charities, not-for-profits and purpose-led brands.
The Ripple Effect works across PR, research, creative campaigns and strategic partnerships, using audience insight to develop communications designed to deliver measurable organisational and social outcomes.
