Always Human’s Adam Ireland makes first major hire
Always Human has nabbed Tiktok’s Ella McKee as its head of client and partnerships, marking the first significant hire under recently appointed MD Adam Ireland.
McKee joins the independent brand and talent marketing agency after four years with Tiktok, where she was its retail and e-commerce client partner. There, she worked with brands including Nike, Bonds, JD Sports, Rebel Sport, BCF, Cotton On, Champion, and Aldi.
Prior to that, she held marketing and sales roles at Junkee Media, Ooh Media, Living Social UK, and Primesight.
The newly created role of head of client and partnerships reflects the agency’s investment in cultural-led marketing and commercial partnerships, according to a release.
Ella McKee
“Always Human is doing exactly what today’s clients need, blending cultural credibility with commercial thinking, and putting talent at the heart of it all,” McKee said.
“What the team has built is incredibly strong, the agency has a real edge, and I’m excited to help scale it even further. There’s no one doing it quite like Always Human.”
In the role, she will lead the agency’s brand client growth strategy and collaborate closely with with the talent and partnerships division to expand its commercial outcomes.
She will report directly to recently appointed managing director Adam Ireland. He joined the agency last month, after over five years with Universal Music’s creative agency Bring.
“In today’s landscape, talent and creator-led marketing isn’t a nice-to-have, its core to how brands connect with audiences. It has the power to shift not only marketing metrics, but core business growth outcomes,” Ireland said in a release on Tuesday.
“Ella’s experience across platforms, partnerships and commercial performance makes her a huge asset as we scale our offering.”
He said the agency is “building for the challenges marketers face to unlock genuine cut-through across any passion-point”, which means needing agile teams, bold ideas, and real influence.
“Ella is a huge part of that future,” he said.
Always Human has had a strong start to the year. Its retained client roster includes Prime Video, Oakley, Asics, Yo Pro, Activia, and the TCS Sydney Marathon.
On the talent side, it represents a growing roster of marketable athletes and creators, including Olympian Jessica Fox, Matildas star Mary Fowler, cricketer Ellyse Perry, and ex-Wallaby Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins. It also recently signed Hello Sport, taking on exclusive commercial representation and strategic growth for the podcast brand.
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Lauren McNamara is a freelance journalist contributing to Mumbrella. She previously spent three years at the publication, most recently as the associate editor. She first joined in 2022 after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left her staff role at Mumbrella in August 2025.
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