Method hires Martin Harkin as global business development head

Harkin will lead tech clients from his home base in New York City and coordinate global business development opportunities among U.S.-based Method and its sister agencies under the VCCP Business umbrella: Harvard, in London; and Sling & Stone, which is based in Sydney, Australia, with offices in New Zealand, Singapore and Los Angeles.  

Method, Harvard and Sling & Stone share 12 clients and have 250 tech, PR and marketing specialists globally across the three firms. 

“That’s where we see an opportunity to grow, as a collective, using these three agencies to go out and pitch global business,” said Parkinson.

Harkin is also focusing on building Method’s client base on the East Coast. 

“In my previous role, I did quite a bit of global business work, and I have seen an appetite for that grow immensely over the past couple of years in terms of clients realizing that having a unified global agency that works in the same sort of methods, ideologies, teams and familiarities makes it so much more effective for them,” said Harkin. “That attracted me to Method, the global aspect and how that is a real target for the agency.”

Before joining Method, Harkin was practice head for technology and e-commerce at Red Havas. He worked at the firm for eight years in its New York, Sydney and London offices and left at the end of July. Havas has not hired Harkin's replacement, the firm said. 

Earlier in his career, Harkin worked at Haystac, part of the Dentsu Aegis network, as an amplification specialist. Previously, he was a journalist at The Irish News.

Sling & Stone also rolled out a speciality unit for U.S.-based startups this week from its Los Angeles office.

This story was updated on September 1 with additional information.