Witham was most recently executive director, strategic client partner at Kantar, and prior to that spent 20 years at Colmar Brunton, most recently as chief client officer and previously as managing director of the company’s Melbourne office. She will work as a director at Fiftyfive5.

Newton joins the company as marketing director from Deloitte Australia, where she established the innovation lab offer. Her background includes advertising roles at JWT and Y&R as well as director of cultural forecasting at GalKal, which later merged with Fiftyfive5.

The two join current director Matt Pearce in Melbourne as part of the company’s growth plans for the city. Fiftyfive5 also has offices in Sydney, Auckland and Singapore and employs around 135 people.