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C&EC&E Growth Partners
About

Built by digital leaders who have operated inside the complexity.

Many consultancies advise from the outside. C&E Growth Partners is built by leaders who have worked inside global agencies, in-house teams and complex digital growth environments, where strategy has to survive real budgets, real stakeholders, real reporting cycles and real operational pressure.

The partners

Two senior leaders. Decades of consultative work across global agencies, brands and markets.

Between them, the partners have advised and led inside global agency networks, in-house growth functions and international brand programmes, translating complex digital ambition into operating models, frameworks and tools that teams could actually run.

Founding PartnerLinkedIn

Michael Ernst

Founding Partner. Digital Transformation, Growth & AI

Consultative experience
15+ years
Markets advised
UK, EU, MENA, Google
Sides of the table
Agency, in-house, brand

Mike has spent more than fifteen years advising and leading inside global agency networks, in-house growth teams and complex international digital programmes. As a digital leader, strategist and consultative partner, his work sits at the intersection of strategy, technology and operations, helping organisations across the UK, Europe and the wider MENA region move from fragmented digital execution into structured growth.

His consultative experience spans growth and performance marketing, SEO, paid media, analytics, AI and the operating models that connect them. Most recently as Head of Digital, he built and scaled digital functions through senior leadership, technical fluency and process-driven thinking, turning data, technology and commercial outcomes into frameworks that teams could actually run.

Mike combines a Computer Science background with postgraduate marketing management, and has spent years translating between technical, commercial and creative teams across markets. The advisory work he is known for is the part that decides whether a digital transformation takes hold or quietly stalls.

  • Senior digital advisory & consulting
  • Performance marketing leadership
  • SEO, paid media, analytics & AI
  • Operating model & process design
  • Computer Science + marketing management
  • Cross-market agency & in-house experience
Founding PartnerLinkedIn

Chrisa Chatzisavva-Ernst

Founding Partner. Global Media, Operating Models & Capability

Consultative experience
20+ years
Markets advised
MENAT, EU, Global
Networks led inside
PHD, UM, Mindshare

Chrisa is a global media and digital leader with over two decades of senior agency and consultative experience across PHD, UM MENAT and Mindshare. As Global Executive Director, she led digital planning and buying strategy for Emirates Airlines, advising the brand and managing teams of fifteen-plus specialists across major media partners and joint business plans.

Her consultative work spans biddable media, paid social, programmatic, performance and brand, across MENAT, Europe and global remits. She has guided organisations through complex change programmes, redesigned operating models and rebuilt capability across multiple offices, disciplines and cultures.

She is known for a combination of operational rigour and human leadership: building teams that are confident, accountable and ready for whatever the next stage of growth demands. Two decades of cross-market advisory work has given her a clear view of what travels between markets and what does not.

  • Global Executive Director experience
  • 20+ years senior consultative work
  • PHD, UM MENAT, Mindshare leadership
  • Emirates Airlines global digital lead
  • Biddable, paid social & programmatic
  • Change & cross-functional leadership
What makes us different

The kind of consultancy we wanted to hire, and rarely could.

The brief is simple: senior thinking, practical tooling, real adoption. Six commitments shape every engagement.

  • 01

    Strategy and execution, not one or the other

    We have run digital operations from inside agencies and in-house teams. Our recommendations have to survive a Monday-morning client meeting, not just a steering committee.

  • 02

    Agency, in-house and consultancy thinking, combined

    Most consultancies bring one lens. We bring three, and we know exactly where each of them tends to break.

  • 03

    We change operating models, not just campaigns

    Channel optimisation has limits. Real, durable improvement comes from how the team is structured, governed, equipped and held accountable.

  • 04

    We build practical tools, not just slide decks

    The deliverables that matter are the planning sheets, dashboards, trackers and playbooks the team actually opens on a Tuesday afternoon.

  • 05

    We focus on adoption, not theory

    A model nobody uses is worse than no model at all. We design for the rhythm, stakeholders and constraints already in place.

  • 06

    We make teams more capable after we leave

    A successful engagement ends with the client team running the model confidently, not with a dependency on us.

Our consulting principles

Six commitments we apply on every engagement.

Diagnose before changing

No transformation begins until we genuinely understand the current state: operationally, politically and commercially.

Design around people, process, platform and performance

Any one of these in isolation is a partial answer. The leverage sits at the intersection.

Build tools the team will actually use

If a tool needs an instruction manual, it will not be opened twice. Simplicity is a deliverable.

Keep AI practical, governed and measurable

AI is a workflow capability, not a replacement for senior judgement. We treat it like any other operational change.

Make leadership reporting clearer

Senior leaders should be able to read a single page and know what is working, what is not, and what to do next.

Turn transformation into operating rhythm

Change that lives outside the calendar quietly dies. We embed new ways of working into the cadence of the team.

Work with the partners

Most engagements begin with a single, focused conversation.

About where the team is today, where the friction lives and what twelve good months would look like.