Brand Champions COO Kerry Nicholson has been named winner of Operations Professional of the Year at the UK Agency Awards, a new category for 2026.

The award recognises the work Kerry has led over the past 18 months to build the systems, processes and culture behind the agency's growth to £3m in revenue. By implementing a fully integrated resource planning and project management framework in Monday Enterprise, they gave everyone, from individual team members to the leadership team, a real-time view of delivery, utilisation and profitability for the first time. That visibility has made growth far more predictable and profitable.

Every initiative was led with people at the centre. Working with the studio and client services teams, Kerry redesigned the design resource process to reduce friction and improve both delivery quality and project profitability, while investing in recognition, wellbeing and culture as deliberately as in dashboards and governance. The outcome is minimal team turnover, 90%+ team happiness, and 87% client retention, sustained through a period of significant growth and change.

The judges praised a structured approach to operations that delivered scalable processes, strong commercial results and exceptional people outcomes. They highlighted the profitable, scalable infrastructure that has also been rolled out to clients, Kerry's skill in keeping multiple department heads aligned, and the fact that they take a "360 approach" to implementing new processes.

Brand Champions extended its thanks to the judges and to event organisers Don't Panic Events for recognising the part operations plays in building a great agency.

Above all, the win reflects the team who bring the culture to life every day. Congratulations, Kerry.