About First Add Water & the Founder
First Add Water is a consultancy offering leadership, operational management, and communications for clients ranging from start ups and entrepreneurs to established entities.
Founding partner, Robin Rusch combines a lifelong interest in how people and organizations can work effectively to be successful, internally and externally, with her experience over a wide variety of industries and jobs.
As a consultant at PwC (2022-2024), she helped clients, such as Apple, Citi, H&R Block, and PepsiCo, unlock innovation, align stakeholders, drive decision making, and solve challenges using design thinking and an agile approach.
She was global Chief Executive Officer at Infrared Experience Marketing, within kyu, an investment arm of Hakuhodo DY Holdings, from 2016 to 2020. Clients and activities included activations for Japan Rugby World Cup on behalf of AIG; FIFA Women’s World Cup for Visa; the ASCAP Music Awards; and the American Heart Association’s CPR Tour.
From 2005 to 2013, she served as global CEO of BrandWizard (at the time held by Omnicom Group), producing brand asset management and technology solutions for heavily-matrixed, multi-regional organizations such as Mercedes, HBO, American Cancer Society, HSBC, Fila, SAP and Hyatt.
Setting strategic direction for BrandWizard’s new product development, brand positioning, and business performance, she grew this small-sized start up to mid-sized stability and consistent year-on-year profitability.
She is founding editor of The Mighty Pluck, an independent publication offering solutions to problems big and small.
And earlier, on behalf of brand consultancy Interbrand, she was managing and founding editor of brandchannel.com, an online magazine for an international audience interested in design and branding.
On the forefront of web publishing, she took the idea from concept stage to launch and then ongoing full production. As an early pioneer of social media, she won a Webby for brandchannel in 2003.
Robin’s strengths include a strong capacity for resourcefulness and problem solving, a comfort level with ambiguity, and an interest in setting next steps when there is no blueprint to follow.