Dubai/Oslo, November 19, 2025 – North Seventy Five, a new and ambitious communications agency based in the Middle East, officially launches with Paritee as a significant owner. Paritee is a fast-growing European communications platform that brings together the best agencies in the market. The new agency aims to create high-impact communications that help clients solve complex challenges across the region while accelerating Paritee’s expansion and presence in the Middle East.

The agency was founded by industry profiles Lisa Welsh and Iman Issa, who together have more than 45 years of regional and global agency experience. North Seventy Five was created for the region’s most ambitious brands, public institutions and innovation players. Based in the UAE and with clients across the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the agency combines deep regional insight with global standards of quality.

For many Danish companies, the Middle East is an important export market. We are therefore pleased to strengthen existing ties and build new paths for collaboration, thereby opening the door to more opportunities for Danish companies in a region of growing strategic importance.

Paritee invests in one of the world’s key growth regions.

“We are launching in response to clear demand in the market: clients want agile, locally rooted teams that can solve complex challenges quickly. With Paritee as a partner, we can scale this promise across borders, disciplines and industries,” says Lisa Welsh, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, North Seventy Five.

North Seventy Five is also a founding member of the Alliance of Independent Agencies Middle East, underlining the agency’s ambition to shape a more agile, collaborative and value-driven industry.

The agency offers integrated communications solutions ranging from strategy, creative campaigns, design and identity, content and publishing, leadership training, corporate communication and crisis response to data intelligence. Everything is tailored to the growth markets of the Middle East and beyond. With a team of bilingual storytellers and experienced advisers, North Seventy Five has a clear mission: to make clarity the driving force for direction, action and impact.

Looking forward to becoming part of Paritee.

“We want to offer the region senior-led, culturally competent teams that move faster and create greater value than the global players, without compromising international reach or strategic weight. Paritee connects us with other agile, entrepreneurial agencies and expands our Middle Eastern roots onto a larger international stage,” says Iman Issa, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, North Seventy Five.

The partnership expands Paritee’s EMEA platform and establishes the company’s first strategic presence in Dubai, the key to the MENA region. With agencies such as Brands2Life (UK/US), Fenton Fitzwilliam (Ireland/Brussels), Geelmuyden Kiese (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), LHLK Group (Germany) and RPP Group (Brussels, France, Spain and Italy), the addition of North Seventy Five strengthens Paritee’s ability to serve clients across markets, secure international mandates and attract top talent.

The partnership also marks the beginning of greater ambitions in the Middle East.

“The partnership with North Seventy Five is proof of our disciplined expansion strategy – establishing a presence in the markets that matter most to our clients. The two founders, Iman and Lisa, are an excellent addition to our growing, multinational coalition of agency leaders. This is another step in our ambition to establish Paritee as an ambitious and bold player in the international communications landscape,” says Lars Erik Grønntun, Founder & Executive Chairman, Paritee.

The addition of North Seventy Five strengthens Paritee’s position as a new type of agency partner for clients seeking a collaborative alternative to traditional networks. The group now has around 500 employees across 17 offices in 13 markets.

ABOUT NORTH SEVENTY FIVE
North Seventy Five is a challenger agency within strategic communications, serving clients across the Middle East, with a particular focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The agency is established as a leading partner for ambitious brands, public organisations and institutions, and specialises in communications that create strategic direction, alignment and measurable impact. Read more at: www.NorthSeventyFive.com

ABOUT PARITEE
Paritee is a holding company founded in 2021 by Chairman Lars Erik Grønntun, former Global President of Hill & Knowlton (now Burson). The company is led by an experienced team of agency leaders with deep insight into the European and global communications landscape and is working to create a new model for collaboration between agencies. CEO Jonas Palmqvist, former COO of Weber Shandwick EMEA, leads Paritee, whose mission is to build a new generation of communications platforms – one that invests in and connects leading agencies across key markets while preserving their entrepreneurial spirit. Through this model, the agencies work together to provide high-value advice and deep professional insight to clients. Paritee operates at the intersection of marketing, communications and strategic advisory and focuses on agencies working in transformative and value-creating sectors such as technology and AI, energy and infrastructure, health and life sciences, and financial services.

Paritee made its first acquisition in 2022 with Geelmuyden Kiese – one of Scandinavia’s largest communications agencies with offices in Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. This was followed by the acquisitions of the global agency Brands2Life and DVA Creative Technology Studio in 2023, the German LHLK Group in 2024 and, most recently, the public affairs agency Fenton Fitzwilliam. Paritee is primarily owned by its founders and management team and has been backed by the private equity fund Explore Equity since 2023.

Read more at: www.paritee.com