SAMY Alliance Appoints First Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officers to Fuel Growth

Apr. 22, 2025

SAMY Alliance, the fast-growing social-first agency group, has promoted Executive Creative Director, Alex Hill, to the role of Chief Strategy Officer and Nathan Townsend, currently Northern Europe Managing Director, to Chief Partnerships Officer.

The newly created roles represent a significant milestone for the 650-person-strong agency group as it evolves and builds its structure to deliver on its growth ambitions.

Hill will lead the group’s new global strategy, vision and positioning, while Townsend will focus on revenue generation across the group by strengthening key partnerships and enhancing customer value through integration with best-in-class tech platforms such as Sprinklr. Both will report to SAMY Alliance CEO, Juan Andrés Elhazaz, and sit on SAMY’s global leadership team. &n bsp;

SAMY’s growth ambitions received a powerful boost last month when Bridgepoint announced that it would become a majority shareholder in the group, having held a minority share since 2023.

Over the last 12 months, SAMY has acquired a string of businesses, including a U.S.-based digital advocacy marketing agency, Content Lab; digital agency MDS and social agency, Kurio. 

Hill originally became part of SAMY in 2020 when he sold SHARE Creative, the agency he co-founded with Ian Cassidy in 2015, to SAMY Alliance. Townsend joined the SHARE team in 2017 as Commercial Director & VP of Sales, having worked alongside Alex in an earlier role. Together, they have been running and successfully growing SHARE Creative for more than eight years.

Hill and Townsend move into their roles at an exciting time for the agency as it targets double digit growth after hitting revenue of over €100M in 2024. They will also play a key role in driving a leadership position for SAMY in key markets including the U.S, Mexico and Europe. In Italy the agency has scaled significantly following winning an end-to-end influencer marketing remit across 24 of L’Oréal Italia’s beauty and cosmetics brands earlier in the year.

Juan Andrés Elhazaz, CEO at SAMY Alliance, commented on the promotions:

“At SAMY we have a laser focus on becoming the leading social-first agency group, the partner of choice for the world’s most recognisable brands. With a partner like Bridgepoint at our side, a strategy to build further scale and expertise through M&A, and a strong track record of organic growth, we are brilliantly placed to deliver on our ambitions.

Alex’s promotion signals a rare but valuable shift in our industry from Executive Creative Director to Chief Strategy Officer. His impact on our global positioning, pitch strategy, and brand evolution has been pivotal and his ability to combine intelligence-fuelled creativity with a clear strategic vision makes him the perfect fit for this role.

Nathan’s deep understanding of the Sprinklr ecosystem, social media platforms, and broader martech landscape puts him in a unique position to lead our partnerships unit. With his new position we will reinforce our social leading position and unlock new revenue streams, both directly at consulting services level and opening social media services with Fortune 500 brands worldwide.”

 

Alex Hill, new Chief Strategy Officer, said: 

“It has been a privilege to be part of SAMY’s journey, and helping to shape its growth to date. This role will help me to take our pioneering approach and mindset even further, and drive our mission to lead the evolution of brand communication.

It’s an exciting time, and I’m eager to continue building on the strong foundations we’ve created to cement our market positioning and vision, while guiding us into a new chapter as pioneers in modern marketing.”

 

Nathan Townsend, new Chief Partnerships Officer, added: 

“It's been an incredible journey so far and since becoming part of SAMY, we have seen the group quadruple its size in the market and built solid foundations for continued growth and development.

In my new role, I’ll be focused on driving scalable, sustainable growth by deepening our partnerships with platforms and building new ones where we see strategic value. Our goal is to offer clients a seamless blend of best-in-class technology and expert consultancy - empowering them to deliver greater impact, faster. This is a key growth lever for SAMY, and I’m excited to lead the charge in unlocking new opportunities across our global network.”