Independent agency Venables Bell & Partners is shifting several long-time agency staffers to the leadership team of its in-house production shop Lumberyard Productions. Raquel Bedard will serve as director of operations to oversee the development of all Lumberyard disciplines and work flow systems as well as lead business development and recruitment for the group. Tyler Hampton is named creative lead and director to manage the team’s creative development. As production lead, Sasha White will focus on building out Lumberyard’s production department and capabilities. And Kristin Obi is Lumberyard’s new client services lead to guide the firm’s client roster.

MUH-TAY-ZIK / HOF-FER (MH) is promoting two long-serving staffers Carolina Cruz-Letelier and Joel Kaplan to partner status to recognize their roles in helping the San Francisco-based agency grow. The agency will now have two partners serving in the C-suite alongside the two founders, Chief Strategy Officer Matt Mofherr and Chief Creative Officer John Matejczyk. "We're an agency of doers, so yeah, they will continue to serve in their current positions,” explains Hofherr. “What they now have as partners is full access to the operations of the company and a more direct way to impact things for the …

Levelwing is adding three senior team members, all based out of its Charleston, South Carolina headquarters. James Morton Jr., ex-Monteferro America, is appointed director of business process and team engagement, Cornelia Madsen, ex-VaynerMedia, joins as account manager and Jason Corn, ex-Red7, is named art director.

Walrus is hiring Jacob Frost as associate media director to be responsible for planning, campaign execution, and follow-up reporting and analytics for agency clients such as Lowe’s Foods, Vevan cheese and Boiron. He’ll report to Ryan Gordon, Walrus’s Head of Media. Previously Frost spent five years at Assembly Media, part of MDC Media Partners.

FCB’s former North American Creative Partner Ari Halper has left IPG-owned shop to start his own creative consultancy called Sauce Idea Lab. “The name ‘Sauce’ fully embraces the tenor of the times, because, by its very nature, sauce is fluid and we are all having to adapt these days like never before,” he says. His consultancy will offer creative, branding, naming, design and innovation services. “Hell, we will even be publishing a children’s book in the fall,” he jokes. “In short, I want Sauce to become an invaluable resource for anyone who believes they’ve got a good …

McKinney is naming Andy Pearson group creative leader, Los Angeles to spearhead the shop’s creative offerings for clients including Orion, Netflix, Samsung and Picturehouse. He reports to Sylvain Tron, managing director, McKinney LA. The long-time Los Angeles resident, Pearson previously worked at Deutsch LA as VP, Creative Director, working on brands including Volkswagen, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. He has also spent time at Humanaut and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. While all new agency hires during COVID-19 are experiencing unique circumstances pertaining to their on-boarding programs, Pearson‘s process was actually simpler than originally anticipated by agency leaders. …

Eddie Moraga has been upgraded from freelancer to permanent status at Doner LA to serve as vice president, brand strategy. In his new role, Moraga will collaborate with clients including Amazon, Icelandic Glacial, and Del Monte, as well as streaming services Netflix and Quibi. New business will be central to his efforts as Doner LA continues to build its entertainment portfolio. He reports to Doner LA President Lauren Prince. Moraga most recently was classified as a permalance staffer which negates the need for additional on-boarding since the agency has a policy to induct all of these contract …

Cheil Worldwide digital agency Barbarian has appointed Resh Sidhu executive creative director. She will oversee the creative work output across all of the agency’s clients.  Based in New York, Sidhu will also serve on the Barbarian leadership team, reporting to Steven Moy, the agency’s Global CEO.  Sidhu joins Barbarian from WPP's AKQA where she was group creative director across London and New York. Her clients included Nike, Volvo, IBM and others.    Earlier Sidhu served as creative director of the VR studio at Framestore.  

MDC Partners’ Allison+Partners has promoted Lisa Rosenberg to president, consumer brands. In this new position at the agency, her remit includes driving business growth across regions. Prior to joining the agency seven years ago she was North American president for Havas PR.    

Havas Chicago Group has added three senior executives to the agency’s leadership team.  Former Facebook executive Liz Roche joins  the Group’s data-focused digital shop Havas Helia  as managing director.  The agency has also appointed Dan Baldino and Marianna Ruiz as managing director and group creative director, respectively. Roche will lead the data-driven strategies, CRM strategy and implementation, loyalty program management and marketing technology consulting for the Chicago group’s clients. She will report to Michael Kaushansky, president of Havas Helia and chief data officer of Havas in the U.S. Roche joins from Facebook, where she worked in Global Marketing Solutions and managed …