North Seventy Five, an integrated communications agency launched in late 2025, has reached an important growth stage with the appointment of Kirsty O’Connor as Managing Director.
O’Connor joins from Burson, where she spent nine years at one of the region’s largest communications agencies. During this period, she established the Innovation Hub and led initiatives around digital transformation, data-led communications and artificial intelligence integration and product development.
Reuniting with founders Lisa Welsh and Iman Issa, she will take charge of building North Seventy Five’s AI-led services, supported by Paritee’s AI specialists and newly acquired sister agency Truth Consulting. Her role will focus on strengthening innovation and intelligence-driven solutions following a series of recent client wins.
Commenting on the appointment, Lisa Welsh, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at North Seventy Five, said, “We launched North Seventy Five in response to a clear market pull: clients want senior-led, agile, locally rooted teams with the ability to solve complex challenges at speed. With Kirsty’s appointment we continue to deliver on that promise. She has a unique skillset in communications and a proven history of transforming and innovating, not only client briefs but training talent in new communications skills. We are delighted to have her onboard with immediate effect.”
O’Connor has been a member of the Middle East PR Association Strategy Board since 2023 and was named to PRovoke Media’s Innovator 25 list for EMEA in the same year, recognising the industry’s leading changemakers. She is also a respected awards jury member, having served on panels for The Gerety Awards and PR Week Global Awards in 2025, and is widely known in the region as an AI advisor driving standards in this space.
“There has never been a bigger opportunity for those working in communications,” said O’Connor. “The agency model is evolving at speed once again, and so are the skillsets required to work in them. Joining North Seventy Five is truly special as we can rewrite the agency model completely.”
North Seventy Five operates as part of the European communications network Paritee, giving the new agency immediate international support while marking Paritee’s expansion into the Middle East.
The agency provides integrated communications services across strategy, creative campaigns, brand identity and design, content and publishing, leadership development, corporate communications, crisis management and data intelligence, and is a founding member of the Alliance of Independent Agencies MENA.
Its partnership with Paritee’s EMEA platform has established a strategic base in Dubai, positioning the city as a gateway to the wider MENA market.
Alongside agencies including Brands2Life (UK and US), Truth Consulting (UK and global), Fenton Fitzwilliam (Ireland and Brussels), Geelmuyden Kiese (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), LHLK Gruppe (Germany) and RPP Group (Brussels, France, Spain and Italy), the addition of North Seventy Five strengthens Paritee’s ability to deliver cross-border work, win international mandates and attract talent.
Paritee now operates through more than 17 offices in 12 countries, working across fast-evolving sectors such as technology and artificial intelligence, energy and infrastructure, healthcare and life sciences, and financial services.
