Courage’s new hires, from left: Kat Ledgett, account director; Domenique Raso, creative director; Rami Dudin, group strategy director; Cindy Marie Navarro, creative director; Saloni Wadehra, group account director; and Amna Khalid, account director.

Independent agency Courage’s momentum is continuing to build with the addition of six new leaders across its operations, including a creative director tandem and new group strategy director.

Cindy Marie Navarro and Domenique Raso have joined the agency as creative directors and will work together for the first time in their careers.

Navarro joins Courage with more than a decade of experience at large network agencies, most recently Leo Burnett, where she worked in a similar role. She has also worked in ACD roles with FCB – both in Canada and New York – as well as J. Walter Thompson. During her career, she has worked on brands including Hotels.com, Mazda, Tim Horton’s and SickKids.

Raso, meanwhile, comes to Courage from No Fixed Address, where she had worked as an ACD since 2020. She has also worked in copywriter roles at BBDO Canada and DDB Canada, including on the award-winning campaign for Right to Play, as well as on brands including the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Visa, PepsiCo and FritoLay.

Raso and Navarro will work alongside CCOs Dhaval Bhatt and Joel Holtby to lead and shape the agency’s creative work.

Courage has also hired Rami Dudin as group strategy director from Publicis, where he had worked in a similar capacity for more than a year and led strategy on Heineken and Canadian Tire. Dudin has also worked at Cossette – on the second, third and fourth years of the SickKids VS platform, in particular – as well as at Taxi and BBDO.

Finally, the agency has made a trio of additions to its accounts team. Saloni Wadehra has joined as group account director on Courage’s CIBC and Nestlé accounts, after nearly 15 years with BBDO. Amna Khalid, meanwhile, joins as account director for KFC from Gut. Kat Ledgett has joined Courage as account director for CIBC and North York General Hospital.

The new hires were “critical” for the agency, which launched just eleven months ago, says Bhatt. “We are so lucky that this amazing group of smart, passionate and compassionate leaders have chosen Courage,” he adds. “We can already see the effect they’ve had on our culture and our work.”

Last month, the agency also brought on Shannon Miller as its executive director of development, a hybrid role leading business development efforts, as well as communications and brand building to increase Courage’s profile in the industry.