John St.’s new executive team includes, clockwise from top left: Cher Campbell, CCO; Matt Ball, chief strategy officer; Allison Ballantyne, president; Tishan Canagasaby, EVP of account management and Cas Binnington, chief delivery officer.

John St. has made several significant additions to its executive leadership team ahead of the departure of CEO Stephanie Hurst, who is stepping down from her role at the end of this month.

Allison Ballantyne, who joined the agency in 2021 as EVP of account management, has been promoted to president. Ballantyne brings 20 years of leadership experience to the role, more than a decade of which was with Leo Burnett, where she rose to the role of SVP of account management and director of operations.

“Her solutions-oriented mindset has made her a trusted advisor to our clients and I’m confident that John St. will continue to achieve great things under her leadership,” Hurst says. After nearly eight years with John St., Hurst announced her impending departure to staff in the spring and has since been transitioning her duties to the new leadership team. Hurst was named president of John St. in 2019 and took on CEO duties in late 2020.

Joining Ballantyne on the agency’s executive team is Matt Ball, who has been hired as chief strategy officer to replace the recently-retired Megan Towers. Ball joins John St. from Wunderman Thompson where he had been working in various strategic roles for the past seven years, including most recently as co-chief strategy officer. Ball has worked on major brands including Pepsi, Doritos, Lays, Coors, Mazda, HSBC and Nestle.

Tishan Canagasaby, the agency’s EVP of account management, will also be part of John St.’s executive team, which also includes CCO Cher Campbell – who was named to the role in late 2020 – and chief delivery officer Cas Binnington.

In addition to the changes to its executive team, John St. has made a number of other hires and promotions.

Among the hires is Jamie Marcovitch, who joins the agency as ECD from Rethink, where he had been working as creative director for more than a year after holding senior creative roles with Anomaly, Ogilvy and BBDO. The agency also hired Jessica DeSantis as business lead earlier this year.

Cam Boyd joins Marcovitch as an ECD at the agency, promoted from creative director, while ACD Natalie Mathers has been named head of art as well. In addition, Erin Brittain has been promoted to group strategy director, Shanaaz Withana has been promoted EVP of finance and Sanjeev Thiruaruljothy has been promoted to director of financial operations.

The promotions and hires accompany new business wins for John St. including Goodfood, Pet Supplies Plus and Fit4Less.