Touchcast hires Conan O’Sullivan in experience director role + Mark Coleman as technical lead

Touchcast has announced two new hires with Conan O’Sullivan joining its Auckland office in the newly created role of experience director which comes off the back of Matt Coleman who has been appointed technical lead.

With a recent senior tenure at Google Creative Lab in London O’Sullivan brings significant creative, design and experiential weight to the company’s Auckland office.

Along with Google Creative Lab, O’Sullivan has led multi-disciplined teams across creative, design and UX to work on global online education products and systems. At Google, O’Sullivan developed worldwide campaigns/activations for Google Science Fair, and innovative activations such as YouTube Space Lab and YouTube Your Film Festival.

Says Andrew Hawley, managing director, Touchcast: “The role of experience director reflects the company’s pivot towards much broader connected experiences and compliments the skills and expertise already in place across UX, service design, technology and content.”

General manager of Touchcast Auckland, Will Joyce, looks forward to O’Sullivan’s start.

Says Joyce: “Conan will be ideally placed to bridge and help lead the diverse skillsets we have here, and be a great partner to our clients. From his broad global experience gained from Toaster in London, to his creative directorship at EF Labs in Shanghai, Conan’s experience will be a great addition to our growing Auckland office.

“His appointment comes on the back of Mark Coleman’s recent hire for us in Auckland as technical lead after an extensive search over the past six months. Much like the experience director role, Touchcast’s technical lead is a crucial contributor in the development of human experiences; Mark himself is a unique character, able to navigate the intersection of humanity and the technology that permeates our everyday interactions.”

With a background in media communications and audio visual production, Coleman has been working extensively on bespoke solutions over the past last 10 years, from architecture and development, to technical direction and strategy across a multitude of technology platforms and production methodologies.

While a local, Coleman has had extensive experience both here and in the UK, working on great brands such as Disney, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Westfield and BNZ to name a few. In joining Touchcast, he will lead an accomplished team further enhancing an already impressive DevOps infrastructure, and human experience skillset.