NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2024--
Sia Partners, a leading international, independent next-gen management and AI consulting firm, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Ready Set Rocket (RSR). The move enables Sia Partners to enhance digital and creative strategy assignments across the entire sales funnel by scaling RSR’s capabilities and reaching critical mass on the East Coast. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Founded in 2009, Ready Set Rocket is a full-service digital agency integrating data, design, and media with conceptual and emotional storytelling. Through its multidisciplinary approach, RSR simplifies and addresses complex business challenges by blending strategic insights, deep industry knowledge, audience understanding and strong creative expertise. Known for consistently driving digital transformation on behalf of Fortune 100 brands, the agency’s people-first values and culture in the workplace have been recognized for awards such as Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year and Crain’s New York’s Best Places to Work.
Led by Lauren Nutt Bello, CEO, and Kitty Tsang, partner and chief strategy officer, Ready Set Rocket’s team of 30 talented professionals is dedicated to transforming client businesses. The agency's unique approach has successfully driven innovation and growth across diverse industries, including retail and consumer goods, financial services, sports, entertainment, fashion, and real estate—including major players such as BlackRock, Condé Nast, Sweetgreen, Kenvue, and Michael Kors.
“Acquiring Ready Set Rocket consolidates SiaXperience's position in the U.S. and reaffirms our ambition to have a full-service creative agency,” says Raazi Imam, Managing Partner of SiaXperience. “This transaction will enable us to multiply synergies and grow our next-gen capabilities, combining strategy and management consulting with creativity and design, data science and AI, life science and cybersecurity.”
As part of the acquisition, Bello will become partner, and Tsang will become managing director at Sia Partners. The integration of RSR strengthens the firm’s positioning in the U.S., where it now counts over 600 employees—including 150 design and creativity specialists across 12 locations: Atlanta, the Bay Area, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.
“Becoming part of Sia Partners is an incredible opportunity that lets us integrate a global platform and expand our service offerings to better support our clients,” added Bello.
In line with Sia Partners’ continued growth in the U.S., the firm acquired New York-based Notion Consulting earlier this year. The move added 25 organizational experts, helping Sia Partners establish a top-notch, coast-to-coast business transformation business unit in the United States. Additionally, the firm strengthened its leadership and organizational capabilities and expanded into new clients and sectors.
Sia Partners now operates in 17 locations across North America, which aligns with its plan to expand to 20 locations and grow its U.S. headcount to over 2,000 consultants by 2027 and 5,000 globally. This is part of a larger strategic plan to reach a billion euros in revenue by 2026, of which 10% will come from AI-fueled projects, over $97M from its design and creativity business line and more than $48M from biopharma.
For more information, visit https://www.sia-partners.com/en.
About Sia Partners
Sia Partners is a next-generation management consulting firm. We offer a unique blend of AI and design capabilities, augmenting traditional consulting to deliver superior value to our clients. Counting 3,100 consultants in 20 countries, we expect to achieve around $500 million in turnover for the current fiscal year. With a global footprint and expertise in more than 30 sectors and services, we optimize client projects worldwide. Through our Consulting for Good approach, we strive for next-level impact by developing innovative CSR solutions for our clients, making sustainability a lever for profitable transformation.
About Ready Set Rocket
Ready Set Rocket is an integrated agency driving maximum business impact. Founded in 2009, our growing team spans 12 states in the U.S. and specializes in blending creative, media, and data. We partner with brands across a range of verticals, including food & beverage, fashion, sports, finance, and the arts. Check us out at https://readysetrocket.com/ or follow us on IG and LinkedIn.
Sia Partners enhances Digital and Creative Strategy offering. Photo: Sia Partners
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilians began voting Sunday in a high-stakes presidential election pitting incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, ideological opposites who are each seen as having a shot at an outright victory.
If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will head to a runoff on Oct. 25 in Latin America's economic powerhouse. Ten other candidates are expected to garner much smaller numbers of votes on Sunday.
Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro and an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Lula, who at 80 is one of the world’s oldest heads of state, is running in his seventh presidential election and has strengthened Brazil's ties with Beijing.
Trump allies have found support in recent years in some Latin American countries, including Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
Almost 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in this tense political showdown.
Where Bolsonaro has leaned into his ideological alliance with Trump, Lula has criticized Washington.
The incumbent president has often spoken about risks of U.S. intervention in the Brazilian elections after the Trump administration imposed high tariffs against Brazilian exports, revoked the visa of the country’s ambassador in Washington and sanctioned a Supreme Court justice who chaired the investigation that ended up resulting in the sentencing of Jair Bolsonaro, Lula's predecessor.
Lula told journalists after voting Sunday that he needs “to do double of what we have done” if reelected, and expressed confidence he would win in the first round.
Flávio Bolsonaro has touted his proximity to the White House, although he denies his campaign received help from the U.S. government. He has insisted that Brazil needs to strike better deals with the Trump administration, including the rare minerals economy. Brazil estimates that its deposits hold up to 21 million tons, second only to China. Bolsonaro also has campaigned on releasing his father from his 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup, and bringing him back to politics.
“Brazil needs change. Brazil can’t stand so much suffering,” he told reporters at the Rio de Janeiro voting center, where he cast his vote Sunday.
Brazilians will also elect 27 state governors, members of state legislatures, all 513 federal members of the lower house of congress and 54 of the country’s 81 senators in Sunday's vote.
Rosane Wink, 67, a retired engineer, is a lifelong conservative voter who supports the former president’s son and his promise to classify criminal groups as terrorist organizations.
“It’s a kind of terrorism that they’re doing with us,” said Wink as she voted in Rio de Janeiro. Last month she had a gun held to her stomach as a criminal bit her hand and removed her wedding ring, she said.
Maria Ribeiro, a 50-year-old cell phone vendor from Brasilia, said she voted for Bolsonaro because she wants freedom to express her Evangelical religion. She hopes he follows in his father's footsteps.
“I voted for his father, and I don't regret it,” she said.
Rosangela Resende da Rocha, a 69-year-old who was previously a stay-at-home mom, said she supported Lula's social policies that help the “less fortunate” and how he stands up to Trump.
“That crazy guy wants to come in here to buy our country, so that our country will be like it is over there,” she said at a voting center in Brasilia. “He won’t succeed if Lula wins.”
Even for those outside the country, Lula's social programs drove many to continue supporting him.
“Thank God I do not need (the help of) social programs, but I vote for those that need them: health, education, basic sanitation, housing, food," said Catia Oliveira, a 61-year-old Brazilian who cast her vote from Portugal.
Thomas Traumann, a political consultant based in Rio de Janeiro, says last-minute mistakes by either candidate or by their allies could make all the difference for undecided voters.
“ Polarization in Brazil created a trap. There’s no third candidate. You only have two options, and they fight each other in an atmosphere that becomes worse and worse,” Traumann said. “It is much more a competition of accusations than a competition of proposals.”
Four years ago, Lula beat Jair Bolsonaro by 2.1 million votes — a margin of just under 2 percentage points. At the time, Brazilians were upset with the then president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his repeated threats against democracy, his attacks on the electronic voting system and the poor shape of the nation’s economy as inflation was on the rise.
Now, the incumbent faces a tough battle because of an affordability crisis and a corruption scandal that ensnared the same justice who led the investigation into Bolsonaro.
Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, says some voters have grown weary of Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term as president. He is one of the oldest presidents on the continent, along with Trump and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, both of whom also are 80.
“Many in the Lula campaign were not expecting such a difficult election a few weeks ago, and it is clear to them that the present election is a tough battle and the next ones, without Lula, could be even more so,” Melo said.
Bolsonaro has seen his political career tainted by several corruption accusations, the latest of them involving a disgraced banker paying him millions of dollars, allegedly to produce a movie on his father's life. More recently, he has been under fire from Roman Catholics who fear he might make too many concessions to his evangelical base.
Associated Press writer Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro, Anna-Catherine Brigida in Brasilia and Helena Alves in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A dog sleeps on campaign leaflets outside a polling station during general elections in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, speaks after voting during general elections in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini)
A security officer places a hat on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as he leaves after voting during general elections amid a crowd in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro arrives to vote during general elections in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lucas Landau)
Voters line up at a polling station during general elections in Brasilia, Brasilia, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, waves a Brazilian and Sao Paulo state flags during a campaign rally a day ahead of the country's general election in Sao Paulo, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
A supporter of opposition presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro wears a mask of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, during a campaign rally a day ahead of the country's general election, in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro state, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, greets supporters during a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
