Independent agency Rain has added to its leadership team.

Joining CEO John Yorke and chief strategy officer Laura Davis-Saville on the leadership team are managing director Erin Wilbur and chief creative officer Marta Hooper.

Wilbur joins from Anomaly where she was most recently business director and worked on the agency’s Hershey account. At Rain, she is tasked with redefining both the agency’s client services and its operations.

Hooper was most recently ECD at Doug & Partners, a role she held from 2021 until the agency closed its doors in May. Prior to that, she led creative at Trevor/Peter for more than seven years.

The new leaders join Rain after what is described as an “operational overhaul” based around the new ways of working. Namely, the agency has moved to a fully remote working structure to allow full flexibility, while still having access to physical spaces for collaborating with their coworkers.

“The people in this industry are not the same coming out of [the pandemic],” Yorke says. “We wanted to look at how we could not only grow our clients, but grow our people. What does each of us need to grow and thrive, now?”

One of the first hires Rain made since adopting the new model was account director Lindsay Mertiri, who will be working for Rain while living with her family in Thunder Bay.

Mertiri is also an example of how the new working structure extends beyond simply working from home: she will soon be taking a maternity leave, but one that will allow her to continue in her leadership role with the agency.

“As an independent boutique agency, Rain is uniquely poised to flex to meet both clients and internal team members’ needs,” Wilbur adds. “We wanted to throw out the operational rule-book and start from what actually works instead of how it’s always been done. That means less process and more flexibility. The right people in the room, instead of cumbersome teams with hierarchical values.”