Harrison, the full service 360 brand and design agency founded in 1989, is today announcing a significant change in its senior strategy and leadership team. Company founder, Philip Harrison, who has led the company through incredible changes and success over the past 34 years, will step up to the role of Chairman from 1st March 2023. At that time, US-based COO, Keith Anderson, will assume the role of CEO.
This comes as the first in a series of key changes at Harrison as it continues to evolve into a full-service agency delivering a strategic approach focusing on the guest experience through combining Architecture, Interior Design and Brand Identity services. Harrison has recently been appointed by fresh new high-profile clients including Hilton, Fogo de Chao, and Marugame Udon, to help further its brand strategy within the UK.
Philip Harrison founded Harrison in 1989, starting with only his car as his office space. Over more than three decades, he has grown the company to become a recognised and trusted business not just in the UK but on a global scale, with a reputation for creating and executing exceptional projects within the hospitality and leisure sectors.
Philip’s devotion to impactful, durable, and profitable design-led solutions has helped ensure the continual growth of Harrison and the success of growing the company to where it is today, alongside key people who have grown their own skills to become key players. Now, Harrison is a global entity with offices in the UK, USA, and Australia, with projects found on almost every continent.
Keith Anderson joined Harrison in the early 2000’s as a Graduate Interior Designer, and has dedicated his entire career to the hospitality, restaurants, leisure, and entertainment sectors. Growing alongside the business for almost 20 years, he is a passionate leader, and was instrumental in launching the Harrison Dallas, Texas office in 2013. Since then, Keith has led business growth throughout North America, and is now ready to take on the role of CEO.
With the full support of the Harrison Board of Directors, Keith will run and grow the global business strategically around the world, offering clients a global design approach and, in doing so, ensure that from market to market the core brand values are maintained whilst adapting by country, region or neighborhood. With the successes achieved in the USA over the last 10 years, the rapid growth of the team, and the overall opportunities presented thanks to the size of the US market, the next logical step for Harrison was for its new CEO to be based in the United States.
Keith Anderson, CEO of Harrison says: “I am humbled, but confident to take on this role and excited to see what we can achieve. Over the last twenty years, I have been able to learn from working with many successful businesses here in the USA and a great deal from Phillip, and I am committed to build on the great foundations laid out by my fellow Directors. Harrison has always been a company that can create and deliver, and we’ve built a great culture and an empowered team with uncompromising commitment to creativity and our strategic full-service approach. Our collective aim is to take these learnings and continue to build the global business to push the boundaries of design within our industry and be a company that our team can be proud to be associated with.”
Philip remembers asking Keith why he wanted to take the position and his answer was, “I want to know what it feels like to start up a business”. That was all Philip needed to hear, and says, “My belief in Keith has been delivered on many times over, reaching the position where Harrison is a well-established and respected player in the USA hospitality sector, all achieved in an extraordinarily quick timescale. They do say a good CEO can effectively make themselves redundant, so its job done!”
