Union bolsters management team with Lucy Cooper as managing director and Simon Hughes creative director

Member News  |  31 July 2018

Union is pleased to announce the appointment of Lucy Cooper as Managing Director, and Simon Hughes as Creative Director reporting directly to Founders Tim Caplan and Adam Gascoyne.

Union -  Simon Hughes Lucy Cooper Tim Caplan Adam Gascoyne
Above (L-R): Simon Hughes, Lucy Cooper, Tim Caplan, Adam Gascoyne

Lucy Cooper brings more than 20 years of creative industry experience to her new role having worked in broadcast, film, TV and commercial post production and physical special effects.  In 2008, she joined VFX software vendor The Foundry, where she spent 8 years as a key member of the team that grew the company from 30 passionate people and £4.6M turnover into a 330+ strong company with a valuation of £200M.

Lucy has been working at Union for over 2 years and is being promoted from her role as commercial and operations director where she has been instrumental in facilitating the company’s recent expansion into new premises in Rathbone Place, London.

“It’s been a very exciting year at Union working on some great projects and moving into our new space.  Both Lucy and Simon have been key to making this happen and these appointments are in recognition of the roles they’ve taken on in our growing team.  Both Adam and I will continue to rely on them to help us run and scale the business whilst ensuring we remain the company that Union has always set out to be.”

Tim Caplan, Co-founder Union VFX

Over more than two decades, Simon has amassed a rare breadth of creative and technical knowledge gained in both the UK and Canada at studios including Cinesite, Image Engine, Double Negative, Clear Film, CIS/Rainmaker and now Union.  His enviable credit list includes the Academy Award-nominated District 9, for which he was honoured with a Visual Effects Society award for Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture.

Since joining Union in 2012, Simon has strengthened his reputation as a highly innovative and creative supervisor working on a wide variety of projects including Annihilation, Suffragette, Bridget Jones’ Baby, the multi-award-winning Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri and most recently Mamma Mia 2.

Union have grown from 51 to nearly 100 staff in the last 12 months delivering work on projects including Annihilation, Victoria and Abdul, My Cousin Rachel, Trust, The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri and Mamma Mia 2.

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