Grip adds 18 staff

Grip’s latest wave of hires has brought 18 new creative, strategy and account service staff to the agency over the last several months.

On the creative team, copywriter TJ Arch joins from Extreme Group, while former copywriting apprentices Jackson Byrne and Josh Gladstone have been brought on full-time, as has former Saatchi & Saatchi intern Shannon McCarroll. Former art director apprentices Will Cuthbert, Skye Deluz and Chloe Kim have also been hired permanently. Designer Tyler Dean has been hired from Cosmic Design and design apprentice Zhi Gao has been brought on full-time.

Lindsay Renwick has been hired as director of social media strategy, having previously held the same post at OgilvyOne, leading the Social@Ogilvy practice in Toronto. Joining her on the social media team at the agency is former apprentice Jeffrey Glos.

Kristine Black has been hired as director of business, having previously been on the account teams at Blue Hive and Y&R. Its most recent round of account service apprentices – James Rutledge, Ilene Shioguchi and Andy Bugelli – have all been added to the team permanently as account coordinators.

Rounding out the hires are Gabriel Patti as video coordinator, Amir Ashtiani as front-end developer and Katie Steadman as office manager.

The new additions follow another dozen hires the agency made earlier this year, and is its second wave of hires since it was acquired by Dentsu Aegis in January.