The Bridge F61 team
Will Harris
Founder
-
Will Harris is one of the co-founders of Bridge F61. His career began in agencies where he worked on a succession of great brands, including Orange, Tesco, Stella Artois and Pepsi.
In 2000, as Chief Marketing Officer, he led the rebrand that created O2 before moving on to Nokia where he was UK Marketing Director and then CMO for Asia. After roles as global CMO of two LVMH brands, Will became CEO of Mission Media. In 2015, he became Chief Marketing and Strategy officer at Karhoo, and in 2016 he took on the role of CMO for Battersea Power Station, Europe’s biggest regeneration scheme. In summer 2018, Will founded Bridge F61 with his friend, John Nichols.
As a creative strategist, Will is passionate about building plans that don’t just live in a presentation, but have real-world impact. -
-
Kent Thexton
Chair
-
Kent Thexton is a technology industry veteran. Kent retired as CEO of Sierra Wireless, a global leader in IoT Solutions, in 2021. Prior to that Kent was a leader in the Canadian Venture Capital market as a Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures (Canada's largest VC Fund) and then founding and building ScaleUP Ventures.
Kent’s early career was in Telecoms, with 8 years in Toronto at Rogers Wireless (Cantel) through to COO and 6 years in the UK with BT and O2 as Chief Marketing and Product Officer and sitting on the board of directors. Kent was a driving force in the creation of the O2 brand, and the global leadership position in mobile data.
Kent is currently engaged on the board of several exciting technology businesses including Bus Patrol, Teralta and Bridge F61.
-
-
Sonja Healy
Founding Partner
-
Sonja began her career in advertising, before managing some of the Europe’s biggest events and executing brand strategies for multiple global businesses across e-commerce, airlines, fashion and tech.
As well as orchestrating major B2B tech summits, and experiential brand launches, her strategic comms and brand visual skills have helped her turn failing platforms into award-winning functions. Sonja has spent her life as a true global citizen.
Born a Finn, she was educated and developed her career across the Middle East before returning to Europe.
-
-
Julian Delamain
Founding Partner
-
Julian has lived and worked in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo. He has led the strategy on major global brands as diverse as Intel and Estee Lauder, Piaget and Huawei. He is most fascinated by the intersection of culture and commerce. For Bridge F61, Julian specialises in the research, data and insight dimensions of strategy. An early adopter of AI, Julian is a champion of AI-powered innovations in research and data capture.
-
-
Maya Bhose
Founding Partner
-
Maya began her career in the advertising industry developing campaigns for household brands including Mars, Fiat, Baileys and Wonderbra. She then moved client side into marketing in the telecomms sector working on the creation of the O2 brand and Microsoft's entry into the smartphone market.
Maya's love for TV (which remains to this day) saw her switch to Broadcast Media working in the UK at UKTV, NBC Universal and Food Network and at Astro in Malaysia where she led a team of 130 in restructuring an entire Master Brand and 14 sub brands ahead of an IPO.
Maya is passionate about marrying creative thinking with commercial needs. She loves developing and evolving brands; bringing their promise to life wherever they are experienced.
More recently she had become involved in the Third Sector and is piloting a stepping stone into voluntary organisations for people over 50 with transferable skills.
-
-
Tobi Ajala
Founding Partner & Chief Technology Officer
-
Tobi Ajala is an award-winning tech entrepreneur, leader & engineer who is at the forefront of helping shape the future of tech communities worldwide. Best known as the CEO & Founder of TECHTEE, Tobi has helped generate over a billion pounds in revenue from software systems with companies like Apple, Deutsche Bank, and the Cabinet Office.
Tobi is recognised as a leading figure in business and consumer tech communities worldwide, specialising in emerging, early-adoption technologies.
-
tobi@bridgef61.com
-
Izzy Thariyan
Business Development
-
Recently graduating from the University of Leeds, Izzy initially gained commercial experience during her time at Decree, a leading cosmeceutical start up, conducting competitor analysis and in store research across luxury retailers. She went on to develop her communications experience during her year in industry at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, supporting international internal and external comms teams.
In this role, she supported a wide range of communication activities, maintained detailed project trackers, monitored media coverage of major regulatory milestones, and produced regular executive updates and presentations for senior leadership.
-
-
Leslie Nakajima
CMO
-
Based in Santa Cruz in the US, Leslie is a C-suite executive specialising in global marketing and communications for transformative technologies, including sustainable materials, AI, mobile app development, location based services, SaaS, data visualisation, and e-commerce. She thrives in positioning new products and services in emerging tech landscapes.
With extensive experience collaborating with engineers, CEOs, founders, and investors, Leslie effectively communicates complex technical concepts and disruptive ideas, and has played a key role in nurturing founders’ visions, guiding individuals and organizations through corporate change, M&A, IPOs, crisis communications, and award-winning product launches.
-
Leslie@bridgef61.com
-
Nathan Leamon
Founding Partner & Chief Data Scientist
-
Nathan has extensive experience working in the fields of education, sports coaching, mathematics and data analysis.
In 2009 he was recruited as performance analyst by the England Cricket Team a position he held in various forms for 14 years, including 3 winning World Cup campaigns and 4 Ashes winning series (out of 5). In 2015 he cofounded CricViz a sports analytics company (now Ellipse Data Ltd). He has published two books, The Test (longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of The Year) and Hitting Against the Spin (a Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year).
He has acted as a consultant for a wide range of organisations, including the British Army, the All Blacks, and the England Rugby Team. He is currently Strategy Consultant for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, Director of Strategy for Multan Sultans in the PSL and Managing Director of CARD Ltd (Cricket AI Research and Development).
-
nathan@bridgef61.com
-
Alex Spyrou
Marketing Consultant
-
Alex is a strategic thinker with a digitally focused, hands-on approach with a proven track record of delivering growth. He brings expertise in revenue generation, integrated marketing strategy and digital journey transformation that attracts attention, delivers great user experience and challenges current thinking.
Alex is passionate about delivering outstanding experience that grows revenue, and innovative ideas that have a positive impact on people. Experienced in both corporate and private equity scale-up environments with accountability for revenue growth. -
alex@bridgef61.com
-
Giles Davis
Creative Partner
-
Giles’s career has taken him from account management to strategic planning, copywriting to brand consultancy across a wide range of sectors in branding, marketing, advertising, design and digital.
He’s helped start ups create brands from scratch and the BBC develop their employee value proposition. He’s headed-up Volkswagen UK’s digital ecosystem, devised award-winning strategies for everything from computer games to agrichemicals and even created a motorcycle club with 10,000 members (and written their bi-monthly newsletter).
-
-
Adam Fresco
EU Comms Partner
-
Adam brings 25 years of media and PR expertise, having led campaigns across Europe, North America, and Asia. A former senior journalist and Crime Correspondent at The Times, with experience at ITN and Fleet Street, he has worked with global brands, HNWIs, and celebrities on crisis communications and media training.
Skilled in managing high-profile reputational challenges, Adam has supported clients including Amazon, Victoria’s Secret, Matalan, and global hotel groups, helping businesses navigate, prepare for, and recover from critical situations.
-
-