Back row, left to right: Ari Elkouby, Andy van Kooy, Lily Coyle, Mike Albrecht, Ryan Speziale and Cory Eisentraut.
Front row, left to right: Ashmita Ray, River Moon, Michael Ash, Mike Butler and Nagmeh Phelan.
J. Walter Thompson Canada has a pair of new ECDs on its creative leadership team, promoting creative director Ari Elkouby and hiring Cory Eisentraut.
Elkouby joined JWT in 2015 from Zulu Alpha Kilo, and has since worked on major projects for Mazda, the Canadian Premier League and Easter Seals Canada.
Eisentraut comes from Havas, where he had been VP and CD in the agency’s Toronto office since 2015. While there, he led work for clients including Greenfield Natural Meats, New Balance and the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
The new ECDs follow an active few months for JWT and its leadership team. In November, the agency promoted David Federico and Josh Budd to co-CCOs following the departure of Ryan Spelliscy to start a new agency. In February, some network-wide changes resulted in CEO Susan Kim-Kirkland adding the CMO role for JWT Worldwide to her remit, while Brent Choi was named president of JWT Canada and CCO for global brands. By March, Federico and Budd had left JWT to lead the creative department at No Fixed Address.
Elsewhere in the creative department, JWT has also hired Mike Albrecht as senior copywriter and Ryan Speziale as senior art director, who both spent the last two years at Tribal Worldwide Canada. The agency has also added designer Mike Butler, who brings experience from Cubbyhole Studio, The&Partnership and The Marketing Store. Rounding out the creative additions are art director Lily Coyle and copywriter Andy van Kooy, who have been hired full-time following internships at the agency.
JWT has also made additions to its strategy team, hiring Nagmeh Phelan as digital strategist for content marketing and Michael Ash as digital strategist for performance marketing. Phelan spent the last three years as a digital strategist at Ford’s dedicated agency GTB. Ash joins from Red Lion, where he worked with brands such as Cadillac, KitchenAid and Whirlpool. The strategy department has also brought on its own former interns, hiring insight analyst River Moon and business analyst Ashmita Ray to full-time positions.