People

Steve Quah is our creative and dynamic CEO.

Steve’s wealth of experience and unrelenting quest for quality and innovation has shaped the culture of the agency and the calibre of our global projects. With over 30 years of expertise in theatrical and corporate live events, digital brand experiences and audience engagement, Steve is the driving force behind our strong creative service ethos. 

Steve has worked with the leading brands to deliver event experiences around the globe, including BBC Studios, Vodafone, Wall Street Journal, Google, Oath, Clifford Chance, LG, Disney, AOL, News UK and Microsoft to name but a few.

With a hands-on approach across both London and New York offices, Steve leads from the very front and continues to put people and purpose at the heart of the agency.

Andrew Harvey is the Managing Director of Cheerful Twentyfirst and has over twenty-five years’ in the industry, producing events, branded content and interactive projects. His extensive client experience and apt for creative storytelling are a driving force behind sustaining the agency as an innovative and proactive growth engine. Alongside our CEO, Andrew continues to manifest a dynamic agency culture where the cross pollination of ideas is actively encouraged. Through his natural leadership and events knowledge, Andrew has delivered award winning projects for global brands including Mars Wrigley, Nokia, Oliver Wyman, White & Case, PubMatic and RS Components. Andrew currently oversees all aspects of the agency’s operations, including client relationships and maintaining best in class creative. 

Jo Radford is our Head of Moving Image, and the heart of Cheerful Twentyfirst. Her inclusive, creative and vivacious leadership style has shaped who we are as an agency today. Jo leads the delivery of world class video content across bespoke client films, award-winning communications campaigns and onscreen event content. Working with integrity and with an impeccable eye for detail, Jo paves the way in fostering long-term, trusted and collaborative relationships with all clients.

Alex Cooper, our brilliant Head of Events, loves a creative challenge. His early career as a Creative Producer established positive relationships between clients, suppliers, freelancers and internal teams, and has been the foundation for an impressive and diverse events career spanning over 27 years. Alex’s passion is ‘delivering the impossible’ for our clients through the creation and production of outstanding and immersive live events. He leads the Cheerful Twentyfirst events team by example and is an expert at navigating bespoke creative solutions at scale.

Hannah is our Strategy Director and focuses on brand strategy and communications. With 15 years experience in global campaigns and complex communication programmes she now heads up our client and agency strategy.

Hannah works on taking the campaign purpose and bringing it to life with cutting edge messaging and global activation.

Hannah also heads up the agency’s global strategic direction and unifies our messaging, value proposition and offering to our diverse client base. Hannah is known for her simple and honest approach to business and communications.

Simon is a multi-disciplinary Creative Director with over 20 years experience in delivering projects for global clients. His passion is finding the sweet spot where creativity meets technology meets brand.

Simon is the first and last person to touch a creative brief, where his role is to find the opportunity for brands, inspire our innovative “creative warriors”, and craft game-changing experiences for audiences.

Our dedicated Account Director Martin specialises in software production and team management for large scale multiscreen productions worldwide. Martin works as a trusted extension of the Vodafone Group brand team, coordinating all events and communications for our long-standing client.  

Creative Director Chris is a diverse and agile senior designer that leads from the front. His authentic and inventive approach to client briefs is a catalyst for creative thinking in the rest of the team. With over 20 years in high-end creative solutions across theatre, video, animation, consumer and corporate event projects, there aren’t many jobs that don’t come across his desk. Chris adds immeasurable value on any project, imagining original concepts and crafting end-to-end bespoke 360 creative to suit client and strategy. 

Beth is a friendly and accomplished Account Director who loves to work in partnership with clients to drive ideas forward and deliver impact. Eight years’ experience delivering comprehensive and integrated consumer-facing campaigns has cultivated her distinctive strategic and creative approach, which raises the bar in terms of execution, creativity and evaluation.

Beth has a 360-degree approach to campaign delivery and is committed to learning and evolving from past successes, lending to her secondary role as measurement and impact lead for the agency.

With more than 20 years of experience designing meaningful brand campaigns, Jules is a trusted face across integrated projects and key client accounts.

His multidisciplinary background in creative ideation, build and production, digital and onsite delivery supports an impactful audience journey, online and IRL. Jules’ forward-thinking approach to brand environments is key to supporting the corporate and consumer activations across our portfolio.

Jules’ previous client work at the agency includes activations for Samsung, Rémy Cointreau and more recently, a digital exhibition for Loewe.

Our US Project Director Zachary Tranter calls himself an ‘architect of events and experiences’ and he is right. Zachary has a proven record of international event delivery that exceed expectations and with outstanding ROI. Combining a background in theatrical production and the culinary arts with formal event management education, he has spent years understanding how the human senses fold into an experience and become the stepping stone of the attendee journey. Zachary works with the technology, media, and broadcast clients to produce live and virtual experiences that impact audiences. He has a special knack for curating cutting edge ideas, technologies, and designs that surprise audiences and delight brands.

Our effervescent Project Director Ria is a driving force in the events team. Her experience managing large-scale, multi-tiered events has shown to be critical in delivering some of our biggest and most involved projects to date. With over fourteen years’ in client and account management, Ria is known for her creative and constructive problem solving that ultimately enriches our client’s projects.  

Manuela is an operational genius. Her core strength lies in taking a creative approach and making sure it is delivered effectively, efficiently and on brand. With 10 years experience in global event and campaign delivery Manuela is able to turn her hand to projects across all industries.

Manuela looks after a number of our wider commercial relationships in the industry and is the agency’s lead on sustainability and inclusivity programmes.

Jio comes from a rich freelance background in illustration and graphics. Through innovative and engaging designs for our clients, Jio helps bring concepts to life. She is the go-to for bespoke PowerPoint communications and establishes a close relationship with clients to deliver best in class visual assets.  

Alicia James is one of our vivacious Senior Project Managers. She has been with Cheerful Twentyfirst for over five years and has worked in the events sector for double that time. Alicia takes an unflappable and constructive approach to onsite challenges and has experience expertly managing a variety of multi-tiered events. She is a natural at cultivating a rich client and supplier relationship and goes above and beyond to facilitate seamless event delivery.

As Financial Controller, Jamie bring years of experience and an eagle-eye to the management of all budgets across every project, and all client accounts. Years in the finance sector have honed his knowledge of best business practices and compliance. Jamie also manages the Aeorema PLC Group.

Our PR & Campaign Manager, Georgia leads marketing & communications and industry partnerships across the agency.

With an appetite for creative communications, Georgia’s targeted and strategic thinking drive the agency marketing efforts forward: leading our external messaging strategy and strengthening our portfolio and client pitch efforts.  

Georgia is actively involved in implementing wider CSR initiatives around sustainability and diversity and inclusion, and continues to be a vocal industry voice in both areas. Her efforts were also recognised in 2020 as a rising star in the Conference News 30 Under Thirty Awards.

Georgia was recently appointed to a Director at Large role on the 2021 International Live Events Association EU Board, focused on supporting marketing and communications efforts across the region.

James is our creative and award-winning Senior Editor. As a leader of the Cheerful Twentyfirst post-production department, he provides expertise and technical experience across the all facets of Moving Image, Events and Marketing departments. James is a natural at managing several projects simultaneously with fearless aptitude for visual storytelling. His enduring commitment to quality has developed strong relationships with long standing clients and communications teams internationally. 

Shooting, editing, writing, producing, directing; Jen Morris passionately does it all as a creative leader for the entire office. As Cheerful Twentyfirst’s Senior Producer, she demonstrates an original approach to briefs and takes initiatives to produce award winning, high quality assets in line with a client’s vision. Jen’s content experience is diverse with over 12 years in industry, and includes corporate, digital and branded video work. 

Meet our ace Film Production Creative who brings technical knowledge and execution to the Moving Image team. With more than 15 years of experience, his multidisciplinary background in film, TV and event production means he has an excellent understanding of creative storytelling. Andrew has an aptitude for visual communication which produces powerful campaigns and films for our clients.

Elena is a talented and experienced Senior Creative Producer. Coming from a background in project delivery she has a rare talent in combining creative ideation with operational excellence. Her relationships with clients, suppliers and industry peers is outstanding and she is known for her ability to create experiences with long lasting legacy.

Elena excels in creative for complex campaigns and understanding concepts through to brand style and into final activation. In addition to her role as Creative Producer Elena speaks at a number of industry events campaigning for better access to our industry for entry-level roles and work experience.

Pete Starling is a versatile Senior Designer with more than 15 years’ creative experience. From a career where his work has taken him across exhibitions, events and as a concept artist for the film industry, Pete’s nuance at Cheerful Twentyfirst is working across brand development, immersive environments, print, and campaign creative.

Heather works at the intersection of the marketing and business development teams, where she helps to drive the agency’s campaign initiatives. With a keen eye for detail, she supports and contributes to targeted campaign work and researches into the future pipeline to build on key opportunities for the agency. 

Our innovative Digital Solutions Manager, Keith is in charge of project managing and leading on technical and digital projects across the agency. Keith has over 10 years of experience in designing and executing bespoke web-based solutions and custom interfaces to drive the brand experience online.

Keith is Prince2 qualified and will almost definitely wear a fun shirt on a Friday.

From initial brief to finished graphics, our bold designer Lisi can visualise complex content before picking up a pencil, and delivers creative end-to-end. After 10+ years as a freelance London designer, Lisi joined the team to fill a crucial creative role, working directly with clients and brand teams to develop world class print and digital assets. Lisi is known for her 360 thinking and creative spark that draws audiences into the comms narrative.

The Cheerful Twentyfirst office wouldn’t be the same without our bright and enthusiastic project coordinator Anne-Marie. She plays a huge role in event support and pre-production logistics across all events and is regularly onsite as core support to the project managers and client during a live event.