Serhat Ekinci, Managing Director

As Managing Director at Unite, Serhat Ekinci’s mission has been to prove the value of diversity and inclusion by tangible outcomes. He created a first-of-its-kind diversity-driven agency within a network and an approach of moving clients from unconscious exclusion to conscious inclusion with cultural lenses to better represent consumers on an always-on way. Since joining, the division went from having 2 brands in 2016 to 50+; increased revenue by 1234% in 5 years and 97% between 2019 and 2020; 2 people to 20 all of whom are from underrepresented groups of multicultural, LGBTQ+, Disable backgrounds; and invested £15m in partners owned by those underrepresented communities in 2020 alone. Serhat’s contribution has been recognised with the IPA iList award in 2020 and his approach took him to present at EffsWork to showcase the effects of diversity. In addition to running a successful division, in 2020, Serhat also played a key role in OMG’s new Diversity and Inclusion strategy: setting up 8 different D&I advisory units with 72 people to setting targets to ethnicity pay gap analysis to OMG Safe Spaces. He’s also the sponsor of OMG Multicultural Advisory Group. Outside of work, Serhat has also become a Role Model/Mentor at Media for All (MEFA) mentoring those from underrepresented backgrounds in the sectors, part of Bloom’s Exchange programme that aims to ensure women have equal opportunities in the sector and a Board Advisor at 14 Consulting Not-For-Profit organisation. Serhat hopes to be a role model and inspiration to people like himself.