The Bloc is building out its European presence, as the New York-based independent health agency announced Tuesday the formation of its first London outpost.
The new U.K. office will join more than a dozen others across the pond, including in Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and more. Elsewhere, The Bloc holds several offices in the Asia-Pacific region and both North and South America.
The London team will be helmed by several new hires: James March as managing director, Andrew Gardner as executive strategy director and Raakhee Thompson as executive client director. Each boasts about two decades of healthcare marketing experience, with stints at major agencies like Havas, McCann, Publicis and Omnicom; Thompson’s resumé also includes stops at Merck KGaA and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The trio will work alongside Alessandro Seveso, CEO of Milan and Basel for The Bloc, and Florian Bernsdorf, managing partner of the Munich office, to lead the London outpost.
“After the acquisitions made in late 2023 followed by an integration phase in 2024, the opening of our new office in London in 2025, with impressive strategic hires, signals that we are fully equipped and ready to serve regional and global clients,” Seveso said in the announcement.
“Our unique and powerful [Behaviorally Enriched Communications] approach, along with our scientific, strategic, and creative strength and a proven ability to execute flawlessly in market, will bring more creative solutions and more value to our clients’ challenges,” he added.
The establishment of the new U.K. location comes shortly after The Bloc bolstered its stateside leadership team: Last week, the agency announced the appointment of Inizio Evoke and Grey Group alum Steven Frank as president of The Bloc New York.
As Seveso noted, The Bloc has been on an expansion drive for over a year now. Most recently, it kicked off 2025 by setting up a new office in Singapore to expand its reach in the Asia-Pacific region. Since then, it has also grown its creative and strategic teams with a slew of new hires.