Sling & Stone grows Australian leadership

Sling & Stone, the PR agency for ambitious brands shaping the future, today announced new hires and promotions to grow its leadership team in Australia.

Stefanie Safahi has joined the team as Associate Director, Startups to lead the agency’s work with startups and scale-ups. She will build on Sling & Stone’s 14 year experience working with some of the biggest startup successes and ecosystem supporters including Main Sequence, harrison.ai, Samsara and more.

Stef joins from Icon Agency where she worked with Salesforce, Airwallex, Brandon Capital and Schneider Electric. She has built a strong career in both the United States and Australia working closely with tech companies and startups at Hill & Knowlton, PR Group and Australian VC firm Folklore Ventures. Stef is also a co-founder of VC Women Down Under, a 200+ strong community of women partners in Venture Capital.

Amy Brinker has been promoted to Director, Australia, where she will join the Australian and global leadership teams at Sling & Stone. Amy has been with Sling & Stone for four years, leading some of the agency’s biggest technology clients including Stripe and Google Cloud. 

Lucie Buchan has been promoted to Associate Director, building out Sling & Stone’s capabilities in research, thought leadership, content and executive voice. Lucie has worked closely with local and international companies such as Sendle, Shipstation, Xero, Greystar and more to develop compelling, impactful content-led campaigns.

“Working with startups is in our DNA,” said James Hutchinson, Incoming CEO at Sling & Stone. “While we’re known for clients across the challenger brand and technology spectrum, both big and small, the agency got started nearly a decade and a half ago with startups and entrepreneurs at our core.

“Having Stef on board strengthens our relationships and experience with the Venture Capital and startup communities, and will allow us to double down on helping the next generation of founders build their brand and take it to the world.

“Amy and Lucie’s promotions are testament to the incredible leadership they have demonstrated internally with our team and externally with clients. I’m looking forward to working closely with our growing leadership team as we enter a new era for communications in Australia and abroad.”

Sling & Stone has grown to a team of more than 80 across Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Singapore, working with the world’s most interesting and important clients including Tracksuit, Zwift, Doordash, and dozens more.