Erika Kessel

Director

Outside founder Rachel Bell, Erika is officially the ‘Oldest Shiner’. Not literally, of course, but because Erika was one of the first to join the Shine Family over 12 years ago with a thirst to do some ‘big things’ for ‘big clients’. It’s a thirst she’s yet to fully quench.

Erika started her days as a journalist at Cosmopolitan magazine in the fashion team, but crossed over to a career in communications pretty quickly when she realised it was a career which offered her more opportunity for talking.

Erika has since been responsible for delivering iconic integrated brand campaigns across FMCG and lifestyle brands. Food was her first love and having worked for Unilever, Heinz, United Biscuits, Danone and General Foods, to name a few, she has good cause to think it’s her specialism.  Now as a new(ish) mum, her passion is kids. Not just her own – although she’s been known to cluck about her baby girl -  she knows a thing or two about the kids’ market too.

When she isn’t polishing her awards from when she was still eligible to win anything with the word Young in the title (like the PRCA’s Best Young Communicator and PR Week’s Best Young PR Professional) she is combining all her passions by cooking in the kitchen for her family.