Ursula Marchese

Ursula Marchese is the current Chief People Officer at RAPP. Ursula has over 15 years of experience in Human Resources, and has held leadership roles at AKQA, Weve, and Publicis Health.

Ursula started their career as an HR Consultant at AKQA in October 2015. In this role, they provided support and guidance to clients on a variety of HR topics such as employee relations, benefits, and compliance. Ursula was promoted to Head of HR (Consulting) at Weve in March 2015. In this role, they were responsible for leading a team of HR consultants and overseeing all HR consulting projects.

In September 2016, Ursula joined Publicis Health as their Talent Business Partner. In this role, they led the HR function at Langland, the most awarded healthcare advertising agency in the world. Ursula was responsible for successfully integrating and TUPEing employees into Publicis Health, leading on gender pay initiatives and strategy for the solution hub, and implementing a specific people strategy for the opening of the New York office.

Most recently, Ursula served as People Director at AKQA on a maternity contract from May 2018 to May 2019. In this role, they headed up the HR team and drove the people agenda for AKQA's London studio. Ursula's achievements during their time as People Director include implementing new HRIS and benefits packages, leading on D&I and wellbeing initiatives, and aligning European offices on people strategy. Additionally, Ursula was a member of WPP's Diversity and Inclusion Group, focused on sharing and aligning best practice across the Opcos on a whole suite of initiatives from apprenticeships to accelerator programmes for women.

Ursula Marchese has a BA Hons from the University of Birmingham in American Studies : Politics, Literature and Theirtory. Ursula also has a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Westminster. Ursula also has a Bachelors Degree from UC Santa Barbara in Reciprocal Exchange Programme with Univ of Birmingham.

Their manager is Marco Scognamiglio, Gloabl CEO. They work with Anne Marie Schiller - Global Chief of Client Operations, John Gim - Global Chief Marketing Sciences Officer, and Courtney De La Peña - SVP, Consumer & Market Intelligence.