Evan Hughes Named Chief Operating Officer of Refine Labs

Refine Labs is proud to announce that Evan Hughes has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, effective October 1, 2026. In this role, Evan will own day-to-day execution across the agency, allowing CEO Megan Bowen to focus on growth strategy and M&A as Refine Labs builds toward its next phase.

Evan joined Refine Labs in 2021 as Director of Demand Generation, quickly earning promotions to Senior Director and then VP of Demand as he helped scale the agency's core delivery engine. He later took on an even bigger challenge: stepping in as VP of Marketing to lead Refine Labs' own marketing function through a critical transition of moving the agency off founder-led marketing and building a full, repeatable marketing engine that no longer depended on any single person to run.

As Refine Labs has scaled, Evan has increasingly leaned into broader parts of the business beyond marketing, developing the operational range that made him the natural choice for this next step. Now, one year after Refine Labs' ownership transition, the agency is entering an exciting growth phase and appointing a COO is a key part of building the leadership infrastructure to support it.

"Evan has consistently shown that he can take on ambiguity and build something durable, first with our customers in his client-facing roles, then with our own marketing function," said Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs. "As we expand our service capabilities and build a true agency platform spanning brand, demand, and expand, I need a partner who can own execution so I can focus on where we're going next. Evan is that partner."

“Refine Labs has given me the chance to grow across nearly every part of this business, and I don’t take that lightly,” said Evan Hughes, incoming COO. “We have a huge opportunity in front of us. We know where we want to go, and I genuinely believe we can build one of the best agencies in the business. My focus is making sure we execute against that vision and build the company that can get us there. I’m excited to get to work.”

Evan's appointment reflects Refine Labs' continued investment in the leadership bench needed to support its growth strategy, as the agency works to expand beyond demand generation into a full platform of brand, demand, and expand services for its clients.