Houston strengthens strategy offering; appoints Daye Moffitt and promotes Cara Meade to leadership team

Brand strategy and design consultancy, Houston has strengthened its strategy offering, announcing the appointment of award-winning strategist Daye Moffitt (left) to the role of executive strategy director, Sydney and promoting Cara Meade (right) to executive strategy director, Melbourne.

Both join Houston’s senior leadership team reporting directly to founder and CEO, Stu O’Brien.

O’Brien said adding significant firepower to the agency’s strategic capability across large brand transformation, start up and strategic product strategy, comes at a pivotal period in Houston’s evolution: “Our investment in top-tier strategic talent will pioneer a new era in the business’ go-to-market strategic execution as we continue to play a key role as a trusted strategic brand advisor for iconic brands such as Lendlease, Ampol and Macquarie Bank.

“Strengthening our strategy offering is game changing for Houston.  Investing in outstanding talent comes at exactly the right moment as our clients are looking for commercial solutions to increasingly complex strategic projects.

“I had the pleasure of working alongside Daye many years ago and I know she is arguably one of Australia’s foremost strategic leaders.  Her role is critical to integrate our national offering across brand, design and creative, delivering growth and strategy for clients at the speed and efficiency demanded by today’s market.”

Bringing two decades of local and global experience to Houston, Moffitt earned her stripes in strategic director roles moving from Moon Communications to Principles, Designworks and latterly at Landor and Fitch where she helped solve clients’ problems by anchoring ideas in strong strategies that made commercial sense.

Leading large teams across the APAC region, Moffitt has spearheaded the brand, communication, product and experience strategy on some of Australia’s and the world’s most iconic brands, however she considers herself category-agnostic and has always said “what she learns from one category always offers new insights or unique ways to disrupt another.”

Says O’Brien: “Promoting Cara to a leadership role after many years with us is a natural next step to take our national strategic capability to the next level. Cara brings a level of care and respect to each project she works on – always looking to understand parts of complex systems, and then shaping simple, impactful strategies that deliver tangible results. Her work is creative, considerate and impactful, every time.”

Meade’s extensive experience includes leading Toyota Australia and Toyota Asia Pacific’s brand transformation projects over the last 6 years, which resulted in record-breaking success and exceeded strategic goals. In the higher education sector Meade led projects for UTS, CSU, and UniSQ, positioning these leading universities for growth and success. Meade also led projects for iconic brands including Qantas, Lendlease, NRMA, Origin Energy, Ampol and a range of not-for-profit organisations.

Says O’Brien: “Daye is a massively talented, driven and proven leader who is innately wired to understand clients’ needs and goals. This coupled with Cara’s passion for creating inclusive and impactful strategies that drive meaningful change, results in an enviable strategical foundation for our team and a rarely seen offering for clients. I have no doubt that together  they will successfully lead our strategy capabilities to produce best in class work for clients now and into the future.”

Says Moffitt: “Houston is uniquely placed to provide an enviable modern marketing offering and delivers outstanding work for its clients.  I can’t wait to get going at Houston, to help shape the offering that some of Australia’s largest and most progressive clients are asking for, and that Houston has the unique ability to deliver. These are exciting times and I have no doubt as a team we can deliver some truly extraordinary work together.”

Says Meade: “After 8.5 years at Houston, it’s exciting to be stepping into this leadership role, working alongside Daye. Creating work that has the power to drive positive change is my passion and I’m looking forward to building our business and supporting our talented team in Melbourne and Sydney. I look forward to what 2023 has ahead.”

Moffitt and Meade commence their new roles, effective immediately.