Vancouver’s 123w has started 2019 with a number of new additions and promotions in its creative and client services departments.

The most senior change is the appointment of Jonathan Longworth, managing director of the agency since 2014, to the role of COO, while also joining agency co-founders Scot Keith, Bryan Collins, Jeff Harrison and Rob Sweetman as partners in the agency.

In the creative department, 123w has hired creative directors Pierre Chan and John Larigakis. Chan has spent the last six years in Cossette’s Vancouver office, working on campaigns for clients like McDonald’s, Tourism Yukon and Arc’teryx. Larigakis was most recently CD at tech company Bench, but also brings experience working at DDB, creating campaigns for brands including Volkswagen, Netflix, Milk West and BCLC.

The new hires bring 123w’s roster of creative directors to 12. The agency has prioritized having a deep roster of CDs as part of its business model, both to bring a range of perspectives and to expand teams to fit individual projects under dedicated creative leadership. The roster continues to expand along with the agency: in November, it added a CD focused on design work, who joined another five that came on roughly one year ago.

In addition to the hires, the agency has also promoted copywriter Kate Roland to ACD. Since joining in 2016, she has worked on campaigns for the BCAA and Canadian Media Fund.

Outside of creative, 123w has hired account director Przemek Kotowski to help service new accounts. Kotowski was most recently at Camp Pacific, where he led the BC Honda Account. Group account director Caroline Howson has also been promoted, taking on the role of client services director. Newer work at 123w has included assignments with Koho, White Spot & Triple O’s Restaurants, Lululemon, St. George’s University, Tim Hortons and Michelin.

The agency’s growth has also meant bringing its finance role in-house, hiring Barbara Tang as its first controller, bringing experience from a number of small businesses in Vancouver.