Meet the team - Zoe Strong, Account Director

Find out about our Account Director, Zoe Strong:

I’ve had a pretty varied career starting off as a primary school teacher, specialising in science. Teaching and leading expeditions (which I also got involved with) gave me a lot of variety and the chance to work and travel to places including Thailand, Africa, India and France. However, I felt trapped in the classroom and started to feel jealous of some of the parents' jobs in exciting areas such as marketing and journalism and so I took the plunge, handed in my notice and jumped to an unpaid marketing and PR internship, which after juggling lots of low paid roles eventually lead on to an MSc in Marketing Communications and very eventually my first marketing and fundraising role in the charity sector.

Tell us a bit about your professional background and how you ended up at Pogo Studio. 

I’ve had a pretty varied career starting off as a primary school teacher, specialising in science. Teaching and leading expeditions (which I also got involved with) gave me a lot of variety and the chance to work and travel to places including Thailand, Africa, India and France. However, I felt trapped in the classroom and started to feel jealous of some of the parents' jobs in exciting areas such as marketing and journalism and so I took the plunge, handed in my notice and jumped to an unpaid marketing and PR internship, which after juggling lots of low paid roles eventually lead on to an MSc in Marketing Communications and very eventually my first marketing and fundraising role in the charity sector.  

Despite training in marketing, I quickly discovered that I was far better at building relationships and selling than I was at sitting down and writing stuff. My teaching background meant that I wasn’t intimidated pitching to a board as it was far easier than a classroom of rowdy children.  I really wanted to work for big brands but to also do something worthwhile. Corporate fundraising for charities such as Marie Curie, NSPCC and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland enabled me to do just that, and I enjoyed the challenge of connecting the dots between what a company needed to achieve and how in doing so it could generate a lot of value for the charity – in short finding the win-win. 

Through working at CHSS I met company chairman Neil as a case study – we got on really well and Neil became a trustee of CHSS – it was through Neil that I found out about Pogo.  

I was made redundant from CHSS and then after working in France for a year, saw the advert for Account Director with Pogo and thought it looked really interesting. I’ve previously dabbled in an app design project at CHSS, which I'd enjoyed, and I was really keen to work in a growing area where I could see the benefits of what I was doing. I thought the products were directly useful, which appealed a lot. As a climber I also had loads of friends who were either worked in coding or medicine and so I thought I'd like working with the team.  

What’s the best thing about working for Pogo?  

I think its’ quite an exciting place to work. Things move quickly. It’s a great team, and I also really like our clients – the businesses we work with are all from really interesting backgrounds.  

What’s the most difficult thing about working for Pogo?  

Because we move at a fast pace it’s making sure we don’t miss things while juggling lots of tasks at the same time. But then, I think if it was slow I would get bored so it’s all about balance isn’t it?   

You have a magic wand which will transport you anywhere in the world (no covid restrictions apply) – where are you going?   

I would go to a place called Lay in North India. Either there or the Lake District – maybe Glencoe?  

Complete this sentence: Working in digital is… 

…exciting and varied and working in digital health enables you to feel like you're doing something good for society at the same time.   

You’re at the Pogo Christmas do. What’s your party trick?  

I can bend my thumb right back over the back of my hand.  

One small mistake you made in the past, which haunts you to this day…  

Had to write a funding application for a children’s charity to fund welly boots. I’m dyslexic so ended up applying for funding for 10 willies! Strangely enough we didn’t get the money that time!  

What’s on your bedside table right now? 

Umm… my diary, because I write a diary. My grandma always told me “write a diary because you think you’ll remember it all and you don’t”, I also have a glass of water, my phone and also a book that I’m reading, Time on Rock written by my friend Anna about climbing.  

Finally: office budgie – yes or no?  

I don’t really like the idea of having birds in cages, I think that birds should be free. I like the idea of an office dog.