A MAJOR media and marketing agency has invested in the North-East.

Three senior executives, including Russell Borthwick, former managing director of Trinity Mirror North East, have been appointed to the Newcastle offices of Japanese firm Dentsu Aegis Network.

Mr Borthwick has been made managing partner of the group’s North-East operation with the aim of introducing new brands and services to the region and emulating the business model seen at sister offices in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and London.

Mr Borthwick, 48, started the Sunderland-based PR consultancy Press Ahead in 2004, before he joined the publishers of the Journal, Chronicle and Teesside Gazette at the start of 2014.

The Dentsu Aegis Network comprises brands including Carat Media which has operated from its Newcastle base since 2011 when Mediavest became part of the Aegis Group. Prior to this many of the team worked for the Robson Brown agency.

Carat’s clients from the region include Barker and Stonehouse, Benfield, Intu Metrocentre, Sunderland College and the University of Sunderland.

Mr Borthwick said: “This really is an exciting time for our team and is a sign that a global player in the media space views the North-East as being a market worthy of a significant presence and this kind of investment. We are very much looking forward to working with clients old and new across the North-East and beyond to provide global scale, customer insight and trading power backed up by exceptional local knowledge and client service.”

He is joined by Steve Underwood, who will be director of iProspect, Dentsu's digital performance agency, and Kevin McEwan, a former Robson Brown member of staff.