Spark Hires First Chief Narrative Officer, Toby Trevarthen

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Spark, one of the largest independent public relations agencies in the world, today announced that it has hired Toby Trevarthen as its first ever Chief Narrative Officer, starting October 1. The agency also appointed Tim Donovan to the role of Executive Narrative Strategist. These new roles reflect the agency's continued dedication to evolving its traditional public relations practice to include a full suite of marketing and PR services encompassing digital, branding, creative, social and community management, and media relations.

"Over the past year we have prototyped new strategic services to help establish and shape our clients' narratives and the work has been met with very positive reaction," said Alan Soucy, chief executive officer at Spark. "With the new appointments of Tim and Toby, we are prepared to formalize and scale these services for a broader market."

In the new role, Trevarthen will be responsible for a suite of "Agile Narrative" service offerings that have been created and influenced by the agency's work with some of the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley. Over this past year, Trevarthen worked as a strategic business consultant with the Spark team as new services were piloted and stress tested with a limited set of clients. Before transitioning to full-time with Spark in October, Trevarthen will continue in a part-time Spark role as he finalizes his commitments from his consultancy Spatial Shift.

"Spark has incredible Silicon Valley DNA with a direct lineage dating back to the launch of Netscape," said Trevarthen. "I am inspired to take that historical DNA and combine it with a modern 21st Century approach to narrative for business operating in an agile based economy."

Donovan is also the co-creator of the agency's Narrative Whitespace™ methodology, which is a knowledge design process developed to help brands accelerate their market relevance through new narrative creation. In his new role, Donovan will continue to lead the Enterprise Practice Group and in addition will also oversee Spark's strategic services, quality assurance, and San Francisco office team mentorship. In recognition of these additional responsibilities, Donovan has been promoted to Senior Managing Director.

"I'm looking forward to beginning my new role at Spark", said Donovan. "We have a great team and with the addition of Toby, we are now in an amazing position to redefine the meaning, value, and impact of narrative for our clients and the industry, moving forward."

The agency began the transition to become a full service marketing and public relations company two years ago, evidenced through the acquisition of SocialArc and appointment of Aaron Mann as General Manager of Spark Digital Services. Recent growth and success also led to the addition of Tony Telloni as General Manager of Spark's expanding New York office.

About Spark
Spark is one of the largest independent public relations agencies in the world. The agency is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Emeryville and New York. Since its inception, Spark has represented clients ranging from stealth start-ups to Fortune 500 public companies. The agency has also won numerous awards including one of the fastest growing privately held companies for eight of the last nine years by Inc. Magazine. For more information, visit www.sparkpr.com.

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SOURCE Sparkpr