Every month or so, we have a little internal competition to recognise the achievements of the team for that period. The process is simple - each person gets to confidentially nominate one or two people as their QuirkStar of the month. Most importantly however; if they want to vote, they have to give a solid reason for their choice. I then tally these votes and read out each person’s nominations at our agency meeting.

We always have a winner and a few runners up and they each win tasty cash-related treats. Even for those who don’t win, there is a certain pride in having your nomination read out. Even I get the occasional nomination and it really makes me feel good.

This month we had our third winner of the award. It made me think that we should really be sharing this, because we are mega proud of the people who make Quirk the great place that it is. So we decided to do two things: firstly the current winner will be featured on our team page here and secondly we should put up a blog post about them.

I chatted to a few of my industry peers about this idea and they all said I was completely nuts. Their main concern was that raising the public profile of our top performers would result in competing agencies trying to poach them. Now I acknowledge that this is a real risk as we are no doubt in a talent war, but for me it’s far outweighed by the fact that I feel they deserve to be recognised for their efforts. Without these magnificent people, Quirk wouldn’t be where it is today.

So without further ado I present you with our latest QuirkStar of the month: Katharina Scholtz.

Kat (as she is more fondly known), started at Quirk as an intern just less than a year ago. Kat now runs our blog (the first time we have had a dedicated person perform this function), and acts as a brilliant researcher for our clients and tactical teams. It’s a testament to all her hard work that she won this award and I really wanted to make sure the world knew about it. Well done Kat!

Finally it would be unfair of me not to mention the first two winners of this award. Our first winner was Grant McLachlan, our design team leader. Grant started at Quirk over four years ago and has now become part of the furniture. Grant is one of the nicest human beings you could ever hope to meet and runs his team of rabble rousers like a well-oiled machine.

I think everyone knew Grant would be the first winner before it was even announced because you will seldom find someone as committed to the cause as this guy. Grant will do whatever is needed to get the job done and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that. Grant, you are a legend.

Our second winner was Sue Cilliers who is a relative n00b at Quirk as she only started about five months ago. Sue took over as our production manager and runs an extremely tight ship. I’ve come to realise that Sue is completely nuts and the attitude she brings to the office is beyond unique.

Perhaps it comes from her days as a pit boss in a Tanzanian casino before she got into the digital world a few years ago. Sue has got an amazing way of dealing with stress, she eats it like a machine and we are very grateful to have her at the heart of our production engine. Sue, thanks for taking it all in your stride and not killing one of our over demanding account managers.

Of course these three people only scratch the surface of the Quirk Team. I sometimes wish we could award this prize to everyone, because they all play such vital roles in their own special way. Hopefully you’ll get to know these people a little better over time as we feature our QuirkStars of the month on our blog.

To all the QuirkStars, thanks for helping make Quirk the company I always dreamed it could be.