We are Rival.

We exist to drive purposeful, sustainable growth for our people, our clients, and our industry. We believe in disrupting our industry as much as we believe in helping our clients disrupt theirs.

Our business is built on three pillars

Exceptional Talent

We’re building a home for the world’s best marketing talent that offers a better experience, healthier environment, and more opportunity.

1

Ambitious Partners

We're searching for clients who share our vision for changing categories and principles for collaborative work.

2

Scalable Solutions

We’re building an offering that goes beyond billable hours and leverages technology to scale the impact we can deliver.

3

We are passionate about setting a new standard for company culture and social responsibility.

Life/Work balance

  • 32 days paid holiday
  • Hybrid, flexible ways of working
  • Company recharge days throughout the year

Diversity & Inclusion

  • Hiring process focused on removing bias
  • Benchmarked salary structure to close gender and ethnic pay gap
  • Transparency and targets for key DE&I metrics

Social Impact

  • Certified B-Corp
  • 1% of revenue donated to environmental non-profits
  • Pro bono work for charities

Meet the team.

We're a specialized, senior team with experience building some of the world's biggest brands and leading marketing teams.

Eric Fulwiler

Eric Fulwiler

Co-Founder & CEO
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Crocs

Eric is an entrepreneur who builds businesses through modern marketing, management, and innovation practices...

Eric is an entrepreneur who builds businesses through modern marketing, management, and innovation practices. Over the last 15 years he’s been lucky enough to help build some of the biggest brands in the world, from billion-dollar start-ups to Fortune 50 enterprises, and learn from some amazing people along the way. He spent 10 years in the agency world and was a first-15 employee and MD of EMEA for VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck. He was the Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer for 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. As co-founder and CEO of Rival, his main job is to hire the smartest people in the industry and get out of their way!

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Jenna Cummings

Jenna Cummings

Co-Founder & Managing Partner
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Sabah

Jenna is a global leader in media and marketing with over ten years’ experience agency side, working in London, Singapore...

Jenna is a global leader in media and marketing with over ten years’ experience agency side, working in London, Singapore and New York on some of the largest and most innovative brands in the world. She met her cofounders as the VP, Media for EMEA and was one of the first ten employees on the paid media team at VaynerMedia. Prior to joining Rival, she was the global capability lead and VP for Media Strategy & Planning at Jellyfish, a marketing performance company operating in 20+ markets.

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Dean Aragón

Dean Aragón

Co-Founder & Advisor
Zurich, Switzerland
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Degiro

In a career that has spanned 33 years, Dean Aragón has worked on developing, activating and commercialising...

In a career that has spanned 33 years, Dean Aragón has worked on developing, activating and commercialising market-leading, global brands. Dean is the CEO & Vice-Chairman of Shell Brands International AG. He is also Global Vice-President – Brand, for the entire Shell group, leading the development of overall brand strategy, brand policies and brand standards. As a marketer, Dean focuses on leveraging the power and potency of a brand by harnessing its ‘humanity’. It ensures customers or stakeholders buy into a brand’s ethos and buy its value propositions. This comes from a belief that whether it’s B2B or B2C or B2B2C, it’s really all B2Humans. Prior to Shell, Dean spent 15 years in senior Brand Development roles at Unilever, across a range of categories and markets. Dean is involved in various industry forums: Board of Directors – ANA (Association of National Advertisers), Adweek Sustainability Council, Facebook Client Council EMEA, Steering Group for BRIM (Black Representation In Marketing).”

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Tim Cawley

Tim Cawley

Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner
Boston, USA
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Guild Guitars

Tim joins Rival after the acquisition of his company HeyLet’sGo – one of the most highly regarded agencies in New England, and a winner at Ad Age’s 2023 Small Agency of the Year Awards.

Tim joins Rival after the acquisition of his company HeyLet’sGo – one of the most highly regarded agencies in New England, and a winner at Ad Age’s 2023 Small Agency of the Year Awards. Tim’s account experience includes JetBlue, Lawn Doctor, Dunkin Donuts (Creative Director on the launch of “America Runs on Dunkin’”), Major League Baseball, Boston Celtics, Century 21, Plymouth Rock Insurance, Sierra, Harvard, Play-Doh, Indeed.com, plus major B2B and Fintech brands such as Envestnet, WP Engine and Computershare. His work as a Writer, Director and Creative Director has been featured in One Show (which he’s judged twice), Cannes, Clio, Webbys, Communication Arts, and the New England Hatch Awards (twice winning Best of Show). As a filmmaker, he’s directed hundreds of ads, and screened in competition at such festivals at Locarno, Montreal World, Vancouver, New Orleans and Independent Film Festival of Boston. Two feature documentaries he directed/produced, From Nothing, Something and make|SHIFT (rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes!) have been acquired for distribution. Tim is also an ASCAP songwriter whose music has been featured in hundreds of television shows around the world - including one of those “Real Housewives” spinoffs, which made his mom super excited. His cover band once opened for Debbie Gibson at Syracuse University Dance Marathon.

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Lance Koenig

Lance Koenig

Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Partner
Boston, USA
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Who Gives A Crap

Lance Koenig is an indomitable force in the world of brand strategy having worked with global clients over 20+ years.

Lance Koenig is an indomitable force in the world of brand strategy having worked with global clients over 20+ years. Prior to being CSO at Havas, Koenig spent three-plus years as Head of Global Strategy at The Martin Agency. He was Chief Strategy Office at Forsman & Bodenfors and EVP Strategy Director at Leo Burnett in Chicago. Additionally, Koenig had four years of experience at Mullen Lowe in Boston as SVP Director of Strategy. He began his career with Hill Holiday, Bailey Lauerman and Arnold Worldwide.

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Jess Martin

Jess Martin

Operations Director
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Cercle

Jess has built her career empowering industry leaders and their teams to succeed in fast-scaling Marketing and Tech environments...

Jess has built her career empowering industry leaders and their teams to succeed in fast-scaling Marketing and Tech environments. Previously, she was Operations/Business Manager during key growth periods at VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck and then at 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. Most recently, she supported the Co-Founders of Permutive, as they secured Series C funding to be the privacy-first infrastructure for programmatic advertising. As Operations Director at Rival, she is passionate about building our tools, processes and thriving culture – anything that will help drive success for the team and the business!

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Viren Samani

Viren Samani

Executive Producer
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Represent

Viren joins Rival after the better part of a decade spent building a video production studio from scratch, serving global challenger brands in the FMCG...

Viren joins Rival after the better part of a decade spent building a video production studio from scratch, serving global challenger brands in the FMCG, hospitality and professional services verticals. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has worked on building media and production business whilst leading creative teams to drive real impact. He is passionate about the inflection point of creative and commercial thinking and brings an diverse approach to Rival.

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Romain Bonnet

Romain Bonnet

Principal
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:

Rom is a seasoned expert in paid media, with over 15 years experience across an incredible range of clients, platforms, and regions. Most recently, he was the VP and head of the paid search department for Jellyfish in EMEA and APAC, leading a team of 60.

He has also served as the head of paid search at Omnicom in the UK, and spent his earlier career with Steak and Reprise Media. While his primary focus is in paid search and retail media, Rom is well-versed in Meta, Microsoft, Google, and many other ad platforms and capabilities. Rom's experience encompasses all major verticals, with clients including Waitrose, Virgin, Swarovski, TSB, Renault, Nissan, and many others. He has earned recognition from the Drum Search Awards and WARC for exceptional performance and has appeared on stage in partnership with Think with Google. Rom's true passion lies in crafting tailored solutions that consistently deliver exceptional results for our clients within the dynamic landscape of paid media.

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Lisa Gapinske

Lisa Gapinske

Principal
Boston, USA
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Olipop

Lisa brings over a decade of experience from agencies large and small where she learned how to effectively solve the most complex business challenges as nimbly as possible. She brings efficient strategic insight, creative thinking, and empathetic leadership to drive our clients’ businesses forward.

Lisa brings over a decade of experience from agencies large and small where she learned how to effectively solve the most complex business challenges as nimbly as possible. She brings efficient strategic insight, creative thinking, and empathetic leadership to drive our clients’ businesses forward. Prior to joining Rival, Lisa was President of HeyLet’sGo, where she led and grew the agency’s client relationships and built its best-in-class operating model from the ground up. She’s led cross-functional teams on a wide variety of B2C and B2B clients including Harvard, Plymouth Rock Insurance, Bank of America, Toyota, Hasbro, Lawn Doctor, Computershare, and Envestnet. She’s a passionate advocate for the power an inspired creative approach can have to maximize the impact, efficiency, and ultimately outcomes for a brand.

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Eniko Vizi

Eniko Vizi

Consultant
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Little Moons

Eniko previously worked as an in-house performance marketer and SEO specialist across several SMBs, most recently handling media planning and buying at London-based tech startup.

Eniko previously worked as an in-house performance marketer and SEO specialist across several SMBs, most recently handling media planning and buying at London-based tech startup. She earned her Master of Science in Marketing from King’s College London, where she graduated with Distinction. Fascinated by all things brand strategy, Eniko’s focus is on helping challenger brands shape and develop their identities and narratives.

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Adam Hewlett

Adam Hewlett

Manager
Cape Town, South Africa
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Finisterre

Adam brings over 12 years of marketing & consulting experience to Rival, across agencies, in-house and as an independent consultant...

Adam brings over 12 years of marketing & consulting experience to Rival, across agencies, in-house and as an independent consultant. He has had the opportunity to work across all sectors with leading roles in performance, strategy and brand development - as well as building marketing teams and capabilities at agencies and in-house. His specialism has been working with challenger brands in challenger businesses, through which he has been fortunate enough to work with smart, talented people looking to do things differently.

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Shail Shah

Shail Shah

Associate Consultant
London, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Ozlo Sleep

Shail is a passionate marketer with expertise in digital commerce and strategic marketing...

Shail is a passionate marketer with expertise in digital commerce and paid media. He recently graduated with a Master's degree in Strategic Marketing from Imperial College London. With a keen passion for branding, marketing strategy, and consulting, Shail is dedicated to becoming one of the top marketers in the world.

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Gonçalo Faria

Gonçalo Faria

Associate
Newcastle, UK
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Proton

Gonçalo previously worked in the scientific sector, specifically developing mathematical and statistical models...

Gonçalo previously worked in the scientific sector, specifically developing mathematical and statistical models to study animal and human behaviour, specifically focusing on social behaviour. His experience includes approaches and methodologies of several scientific disciplines, including economy, psychology, and evolutionary biology, in world-leading institutes like the University of St Andrews and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. He brings his analytical and scientific skills and knowledge to the marketing and technological world, where he aims to bring positive change to challenger brands that want to be competitive and be part of tomorrow's future.

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Mikayla Belson

Mikayla Belson

Associate Creative Director
Boston, USA
Favorite Challenger Brand:
The Ordinary

An Art Director by trade, Mikayla has produced high-profile work in such diverse categories as retail, tech, finance, education, toys, home services, travel, and insurance.

An Art Director by trade, Mikayla has produced high-profile work in such diverse categories as retail, tech, finance, education, toys, home services, travel, and insurance. A graduate of Emerson College and The Creative Circus, her work has appeared in the Communication Arts Advertising Annual, Archive, Ads of the World, Adweek, Muse by Clio, and shortlisted at One Show. She was the most awarded Art Director at the 2023 New England Hatch Awards. Maddie, her 5 lb. Yorkshire Terrier, defends our dog-friendly Boston office with ferocity.

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Yuri Carvalho

Yuri Carvalho

Filmmaker
Boston, USA
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Rockstar Games

Yuri Carvalho is a seasoned filmmaker with a true passion for the craft. From the moment he first picked up a camera in 2016 to pursuing film school, he knew this was his calling.

Since graduating in 2020, Yuri has honed his skills as an editor at Hill Holiday and through freelance work, contributing to multiple commercial projects featured on Ads of the World. He has further expanded his creative range, taking on diverse roles as an editor and shooter across various projects—from music videos, of which he has shot, edited, and produced hundreds, to commercials, social media content, and events. Bringing his unique vision and dedication to every project, Yuri is now a full-time filmmaker at Rival, where he continues to pursue his passion for storytelling, delivering high-quality, impactful content.

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Alyssia Chettiar

Alyssia Chettiar

Executive Assistant
Johannesburg, South Africa
Favorite Challenger Brand:
Huda Beauty

Master of multitasking and executive wizardry!

Master of multitasking and executive wizardry! As an Executive Assistant, Alyssia helps the Rival team orchestrate chaos into harmony, turning schedules into symphonies and meetings into masterpieces. With a blend of precision and personality, she is the secret sauce behind seamless operations here at Rival. Alyssia joins Rival after a decade spent in marketing and creative agencies.

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