David Gutfelt becomes CEO of Apply Agency

From 1 September, David Gutfelt officially takes on the role he has long held day to day: CEO of Apply Agency.

Over the past few years, David has taken on more and more responsibility for our clients, the business and everyday life at Apply Agency. He has brought calm, direction and momentum, also when the rest of us have shown up with an overbooked calendar, a loose idea and plenty of Slack emojis.

It is new on paper, but not in practice. And it is the first concrete news in Apply 7.0: the next version of Apply Agency after almost seven years.

New title, familiar role

With David as CEO, responsibility for the day-to-day commercial, organisational and advisory leadership becomes clearer.

That gives Anja Damberg and Kristian Corr Thrane even more room to stay close to delivery, clients and technology. For us, leadership is not something that should happen far away from the projects. It belongs where decisions are made, where systems have to fit together, and where our clients’ reality meets our expertise.

David has already shown that he can stand right there. He can set direction without making everything solemn, and make clear decisions without forgetting the people who have to live with them.

David combines reassuring business and governance skills with human calm and a fairly intense Apply Agency spirit. It is a rare mix, and exactly the one we need.

Kristian Corr Thrane, co-founder and Head of Technology

The first part of Apply 7.0

Last week, we gathered the team in Italy to work on what Apply Agency should be really good at in the years ahead.

We did not come home with a 74-page strategy document, but with a clearer shared direction and a slight hangover.

We want to build self-service and user portals that solve real problems. We want to use AI and agents when they create real value, not just because someone put AI in this year’s PowerPoint template. And we want to keep experienced people close to our clients and the solutions they depend on.

David’s new role is an important part of that division of work. He takes responsibility for bringing business, people and direction together, while our senior people stay close to clients and technology.

What David brings

David brings many years of experience from consulting and has worked with digital strategy, delivery, leadership and complex client projects across industries, organisations and countries.

At Apply Agency, he has long played a central role in the way we collaborate, prioritise and deliver.

What I value most about Apply Agency is the combination of expertise and humanity. We take technology seriously, but we also take collaboration seriously. Clients should be able to feel that we understand their business, their systems and their everyday life. That is where we make the biggest difference.

And when you ask David himself what else drives him, the answer does not necessarily get more corporate.

I believe in decency, good energy and not making things more complicated than they are. Apply Agency is a place where you can say things as they are, with room for differences, including in taste in music. That takes a lot of trust, both internally and externally. For me, trust is speed, and speed is one of the decisive factors for success in our industry.

That he also drinks Wiibroe beer and listens to Kandis obviously drags the rest of us down. But if there is to be room for differences, we apparently have to mean it when it gets difficult too.

Congratulations, David. It is well deserved, and we look forward to building Apply 7.0 together with you.

Anja and Kristian, on behalf of everyone at Apply Agency 🫶🏼