Independent creative agency Courage has added a new leader for its production team with the addition of Clair Galea as executive producer.

Galea, perhaps best known as the national promo voice for CBC Television and CBC Music for more than 11 years, is also a celebrated producer who has held key roles at Rethink, BBDO and Wunderman Thompson earlier in her career. More recently, she has been working with Courage on a freelance basis, helping produce work for major clients including Nescafé and CIBC.

“Clair is without doubt a force in our business. Every single day we feel the impact of what she brings to the table. You add to that her years of deep connections and stellar reputation in the production community, and it’s truly invaluable to a place like Courage that works so closely with our production partners,” Dhaval Bhatt, founder and CCO at the agency, tells strategy. “[She] has been an integral member of our core team since the very beginning. Frankly, it was simply time to put a ring on it.”

For her part, Galea says, “there is a tremendous amount of mutual respect” between herself and the agency’s founders.

“I was at the point in my career where I only wanted to be producing the very best work coming out of our market,” she adds. “Working together is genuinely a pleasure and I’m honoured to be part of the Courage team. I’m looking forward to all that’s to come.”

The agency, which is wrapping up its first year, has made a flurry of hires and grown to more than 40 employees already. These hires include several senior appointments, from Tom Kenny as partner and chief strategy officer to Shannon Miller as executive director of development. All of that growth is “simply matching our client needs,” says Bhatt.

“We believe that our teams are at their best when they have the bandwidth to do their jobs properly,” he adds. “That’s really the biggest driver for our growth and momentum.”