Dustin Rideout has joined The Hive as chief strategy officer as the agency continues to bolster its leadership ranks.

Rideout will lead strategy across The Hive’s offices in both Canada and the U.S. He will also joins an executive team that includes president and CEO Jared Stein, CCO Simon Creet, chief experiential officer Jennifer Lukas, CFO Troy Hayball, chairman Andy Krupski and founding partners Rick Shaver and Ted Rakoczy.

In an email, Shaver told strategy that this is a new role at the shop and emblematic of the importance the agency and its clients place on strategy.

“We have always had strong strategic resources here at The Hive but with the addition of Dustin, this takes our competencies to an entirely new level,” Shaver adds.

Prior to joining The Hive, Rideout spent about 15 months as chief strategy officer at Juniper Park\TBWA, but his sixteen years of industry experience include leading strategy at McCann and fan experience at MLSE. He was also a partner and strategy lead at Sid Lee – coming to The Hive will be reunite him with Stein, another former Sid Lee partner who took over as president and CEO in March. During their time at Sid Lee, the pair worked on clients like Coca-Cola, Sport Chek and MLSE for the Toronto Raptors’ “We The North” platform.

According to the agency, Rideout’s arrival at The Hive comes at a time of significant business growth for the agency’s offices in North America.

In December, The Hive announced it had added three new roles to help the agency continue to move deeper into the content, experiential and brand activation space, building on the agency’s “valuable encounters” positioning.

Juniper Park\TBWA confirmed to strategy that it is currently conducting a search for a new chief strategy officer.