Bland (pictured), formerly board director at Walnut Unlimited, joined the company in 2017, and previously held senior roles at agencies including Basis Research and Future Thinking.

In his new role, he will oversee day-to-day running of the agency and focus on expanding the company’s client offer.

Bland will continue to report to Rudling, who has held the role of Walnut Unlimited managing director for the past four years.

Rudling will continue in her role leading the broader Unlimited Group’s insights & analytics division, comprising Walnut Unlimited and analytics and data science business Realise Unlimited.

Unlimited Group’s insight agencies ICM Direct, ICM Unlimited and Marketing Sciences Unlimited merged under the Walnut brand name in 2017. 

Rudling said: “Chris provides excellent counsel, champions evolution, and lives our human understanding proposition every day. Not only is he the ideal person to lead this charge, both from a cultural and capability perspective, but he also goes above and beyond to ensure our clients communicate effectively with their customers – which is what Walnut Unlimited is all about.”