Zulu Alpha Kilo’s new hires include (left to right, top to bottom): Addie Gillespie, CD out of its Vancouver office; Damian Simev, digital design director; Amaris Branco, art director; Jarrett Moffatt, Nick Kidd and Shelby Harper, copywriters; Jack Hwang and Ivan Mallqui, ACDs; Mariia Kul, copywriter and Nayla Alana, ACD.

Zulu Alpha Kilo has made a handful of new additions to its creative teams in Toronto and Vancouver.

On the west coast, the independent has added Addie Gillespie as a creative director. Gillespie most recently held the same position at 123w, which she joined in 2018. Throughout her career she has worked on a wide variety of clients, including Athletics Canada, BC Breast Cancer, Sleeman, Honda, McDonalds, BC Dairy, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver International Film Festival and BC Lottery.

Also joining the agency’s creative team in its Toronto office are Ivan Mallqui, Nayla Alana and Jack Hwang as ACDs, each of them bringing international experience.

Mallqui joins from Potro Lima, an independent agency in Peru, and has previously worked at J. Walter Thompson and McCann, also in the Peruvian market. Alana, meanwhile, joins from Galeria in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she worked on the TikTok and Resso (Bytedance) brands. She has worked at Ogilvy Brazil, J. Walter Thompson, Publicis and DDB Spain, and her “Shopping Inside Songs” campaign for Magalu won a Cannes Lion in creative ecommerce and three One Show pencils. Hwang launched his career as an art director intern at Droga5 and has worked at Fred&Farid, Forsman&Bodenfors and BBH, all in New York.

The agency has also added four copywriters to the fold, including Jarrett Moffatt from the Narrative Group. Shelby Harper, Mariia Kul and Nick Kidd – all recent graduates – round out that group of hires, while Amaris Branco, also a recent grad, joins the independent agency as an art director.

Finally, Zulu has added Damian Simev on a full-time basis as digital design director. Simev had been working freelance for Zulu on projects including the Micropedia of Microaggressions and Interac’s Sound of Spending.

“Our pool of creative talent keeps getting deeper across North America,” says Zak Mroueh, Zulu’s founder and creative chairman. “I’m excited to see this new crop of talent join us and contribute to our creative product.”