Shaping the Communication Culture of Some of the World’s Best Brands

In must-win pitches, high-stakes investor meetings, or strategically important partner conferences, success or failure often rests on the strength of a single moment: the presentation. When communication is clear, compelling, and well executed, it creates connection, drives alignment, and keeps vital conversations moving forward. For more than 20 years, Eyeful Presentations has helped organisations perform at these defining moments – transforming the way stories and messages are communicated when it matters most.

CEO Luke Riordan, named the Most Influential CEO 2026 – B2B Communication (UK), was on hand for more.

Rightfully recognised as one of the leading B2B presentation and communication agencies on the planet, Eyeful Presentations has played a pivotal role in ensuring the presentation success of innovative start-ups through to global enterprise organisations such as Microsoft, Adobe, KPMG, TD SYNNEX, and PepsiCo. Transforming how these organisations engage their audiences and share their ideas, every presentation worked on by Eyeful is defined by its purpose-driven nature and measurable outcomes. There to make sure this goes off without a hitch is the agency’s global team.

Comprising expert storytellers, content creators, and world leading creatives who work across the UK, Europe, the US, and the Middle East, the team here are aligned under Eyeful’s mission: to operate a great business full of great people that deliver great outcomes for great clients. Both this guiding principle and the emphasis on quality and service have been shaping the agency since day one, and they were only exacerbated three years ago when Eyeful became employee owned, a common theme throughout our discussion with Luke, who became CEO earlier this year after a 12-year stint in several roles within the agency.

“When everyone has a direct stake in the success of the business, their motivation and commitment naturally increase, leading to better decision-making and a stronger collective effort. Everyone matters; everyone wins.”

As Eyeful’s CEO, Luke believes the responsibilities of his role to be clear and simple: to create the conditions for its great people to do their best work. What this means is setting the direction, protecting the culture, making sure that the agency is both sustainable and financially strong, and – perhaps most importantly – warranting that the work it does is moving the needle for the clients it serves.

Having laid out the things that matter the most to both the agency and their clients, Luke’s day to day involves clearly and calmly focusing on these key areas. Luke explained: “There’s a lot of noise in business and leadership, and it’s easy to get pulled into things that look important but add very little. I’m far more interested in doing fewer things exceptionally well than trying to juggle everything badly.” This comes from a place of humility within Luke, who told us he believes himself not to be special or overly talented, and has rather got as far he has in the agency world by staying humble, working hard, and always remaining curious.

Thus, like many great CEOs and business leaders, Luke acknowledges that he is surrounded by people who are far better than himself in various domains, be it creativity or technical skills. A huge part of being a CEO is not trying to keep up or compete with these individuals, but rather to support and challenge them, linking back to Luke’s drive to build a space where they can perform at the highest level, which is one his overarching aims at Eyeful.

Like many chief executives, Luke’s journey was far from linear and it was certainly not the end goal at any point during the early stages of his tenure. It all started by him saying yes to the opportunities he was presented with, which took him out of his comfort zone and allowed him to learn the business from the inside out. On the back of this, Luke has worked across almost every team within Eyeful, something which happens a lot in these fast paced, high-growth agencies.

“I learned how strategy comes together, how clients think, how operations really work, how to build teams, and how to make tough calls when the pressure is on. It gave me a well-rounded understanding of what it takes to deliver this world-class support.”

Luke also mentioned the transition to an employee-ownership model as being a huge part of his development. With the agency turning into an employee-owned trust (EOT), the entire psychology of the business changed – as did Luke’s perspective on how things work with it. He shared: “You quickly realise that decisions aren’t just operational; they carry weight for everyone in the organisation, because everyone has a stake in the outcome. You’re responsible for the sustainability and health of the entire organisation.”

Thankfully, this shift has gone down a treat at Eyeful, with the teams now operating atop a stronger sense of shared responsibility, ownership, pride, and commercial success and Luke adjusting his leadership to be less about hierarchy and more about shared accountability. Luke also credits his mentors – namely Simon Morton, whose ethos can be seen rooted deep in Eyeful’s culture – with supporting the way he both manages and approaches leadership.

Eyeful’s work with clients such as Microsoft, Adobe, and PepsiCo has also provided direct access to senior leaders and executive teams across some of the world’s largest organisations. Seeing how these leaders operate first-hand – and collaborating with them on high-stakes projects – sets a benchmark that continually raises the bar.

It is the sum of all of these experiences that has led to Luke adopting a simple philosophy about being a leader. He commented: “People do their best work when they feel trusted, challenged, and supported – in that order.” This has laid the groundwork for an exceptional culture within Eyeful, one where having the right people, the right priorities, and the right cultural foundations are all equally as important in driving success. Talent only matters so much and behaviour is just as important – if not even more so.

What this shows is Luke’s belief that progress is built on action, not intention. This school of thought is particularly interesting of late, given that AI has become a huge point of contention within the industry. As Luke told us: “When I explain that our business is to help other businesses when they need to present, the typical response is, ‘You’re in trouble. AI will replace all that’.” Luke does not think that this is the case quite yet, and the fact that Eyeful has just closed on its best year ever with record revenue and profit suggests he is right.

Eyeful achieved this not by becoming an AI shop, but by doubling down on what’s always mattered: its people, the quality of its work, and the value it delivers for its customers and partners. Eyeful then backed its people and empowered them to use AI to make these things even better. AI is treated as an efficiency tool and a skills multiplier as opposed to something that can replace what Eyeful and other such agencies offer to their clients.

“The line that stuck with me was: ‘You’re not going to be replaced by AI; you’re going to be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI better than you’.”

Rounding off his thoughts, Eyeful’s CEO turned his attention to what is next, not only for the agency but for himself as well. The conversation again turned to the EOT model, which is particularly poignant as the agency approaches its ‘Financial Freedom Day’, the day where the debt from purchasing the business is paid off and all future profits come back into the organisation. This operational pivot is something that will create real change in the lives of the agency’s employees, and Luke recognises it is his responsibility to see this reaches its full potential.

“The people who helped build Eyeful deserve to feel the full benefit of what they’ve created, and I see it as one of my future responsibilities to help make that happen,” he shared. As for how he will achieve this, it is business as usual for Eyeful’s CEO as we approach 2026. Luke concluded: “I just plan to keep doing what’s worked so far: working hard, staying grounded and remaining curious. We’re all operating in a moment of extraordinary change – AI and tech is evolving at a pace none of us have seen before, and it’s reshaping how businesses communicate, create, and make decisions. It’s an exciting time, but also an unpredictable one – none of us really know what the next decade will look like. What I do know is that staying curious, adaptable, and willing to experiment will be essential.”