Artefact hires Ashish Sidhra to lead UK consulting services

Professional services firm Artefact UK has appointed Ashish Sidhra to lead its new consulting offering. Sidhra arrives having formerly worked for Capgemini Consulting and BearingPoint during an extensive career.

Artefact started life as a management consultancy in France, but has since expanded into 25 offices across 17 countries, with more than 1,000 employees delivering three service lines. These are data consulting, digital marketing expertise and technology development (big data and artificial intelligence). Now, Artefact has entered the UK to offer brand clients a genuine alternative to both the traditional agency networks and more recent entrants to the market.

Bringing together 120 UK staff across consultancy, in-house data technology and media activation, Artefact UK is built on the acquisition of 4Ps Marketing together with an additional 30 new hires in data and consulting. As the consulting industry as a whole moves to offer more holistic design and advisory services to clients looking for marketing solutions, Artefact has appointed a new professional to lead its UK consulting line.

Ashish Sidhra has now been appointed as the Data Science and AI Consulting Services Partner for Artefact, having first joined the firm a year ago from Dubai Tourism, where he was Director – Digital and Partnerships. Sidhra has held a multitude of similar positions in marketing, but also includes a number of consulting roles among his prior experience. Before becoming Vice President Digital Innovation & Emerging Services at du in 2014, he held the role of Head of Communication in BearingPoint’s Media & Entertainment Sector for almost two years.

Sidhra also spent a year as a Manager in Corporate Strategy with Telefonica O2 UK, following an extended stay with what was then known as Capgemini Consulting. He spent a grand total of six years with the firm, reaching the role of Managing Consultant in the Telecom & Media consulting practice before his departure. Sidhra’s new position with Artefact will see him develop Artefact’s data science and AI consulting offer for UK-based and global clients.

Commented on his new challenge, Ashish Sidhra said “With consulting built into our DNA, we are an integrated team of activation channels experts, data scientists, technologists, management consultants and creatives working together on a daily basis. This approach gives us the flexibility to build teams tailored to the specific needs of each client. Artefact offers a disruptive new vision for how the sector can operate.”     

Artefact’s newly appointed Global Chief Activation Officer, Frédéric Joseph added, “The move into the UK provides a strong statement of intent for the next stage in Artefact’s evolution: we want to help the world’s biggest brands achieve their ambitions and shake up the sector in the process. While we already have a strong presence in mainland Europe, we have every intention of becoming the biggest indie in the world.”