GREY INVESTS IN CULTURE FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

Grey New York believes that a healthy internal employee culture is essential to producing high quality creative work and has invested in that commitment by creating a senior leadership role to keep its culture in focus. The agency announces today that it has hired Adrian J. Hopkins as its first-ever Senior Vice President, Internal Culture and Communications. 

Hopkins was most recently Senior Director of Internal Communications at General Assembly, a global provider of tech education, and previously spent five years at The New York Times, where he overlapped with Grey New York CEO Amber Guild and COO Nur El Shami. 

At The Times, Hopkins was an effective agent of culture change. He was the architect of the company’s first global employee mentorship program, which supported more than 450 employees in 19 countries over three years and delivered more promotions and lower turnover for its participants than the general employee population, particularly for staff of color. He also led the strategy for providing on-demand professional coaching to 4,700 colleagues and as co-chair of the Black@NYT employee resource group, advised the development of the company’s inaugural diversity report. For his accomplishments, Adrian received the Times’s highest employee recognition –– the Publisher’s Award –– twice during his tenure there.

“Nur and I both admired how Adrian made an indelible impact on the culture of The New York Times, with so many employees crediting his programs as reasons they were proud to work there,” said Guild. “That track record makes us and our entire New York leadership team excited to have him help us live our agency’s core values of being empathetic, inclusive, curious, entrepreneurial, ambitious, and fearless.”

In his new role at Grey New York, Hopkins will lead the creation of content and experiences that help employees feel connected to the strategic vision set by agency leadership and connected to each other in a hybrid working environment. His responsibilities will include programming regular all-agency meetings, organizing forums for dialogue between leadership and employees, partnering with functions focused on employee experience and DEI as well as collaborating with counterparts within the AKQA Group and WPP. The position reports into Alice Norcia, Executive President, Communications.

“Advertising, with its power to shape the culture we all live in, has a unique ability to lead how creative professionals experience the future of work and it’s a privilege to support an agency that has been a pioneer in our industry for 105 years,” Hopkins said. “I’m especially honored that Grey New York leadership saw in me an opportunity to tap someone with a nontraditional creative background to help lead on pivotal questions about team connectedness.”

Before The Times, Hopkins held strategy and business development leadership roles at a boutique creative agency called Bureau Blank and at Viacom, where he supported VH1, MTV, and BET.  As a writer, he also led campaigns for Bureau Blank clients such as The City of New York and has published career advice and personal narratives in outlets such as The Muse, TIME, and Forbes. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Hopkins earned a B.A. in History from Yale and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and rescue dog.

Source: Grey New York

  Adrian J. Hopkins, Grey New York