• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 4, 2021

Over the past year Southfield, MI-based agency Doner has quietly added 12 staffers in Chicago where they are housed within space leased by parent company Stagwell Inc.

Today the agency officially unveiled the launch of what it’s calling “a new Chicago talent hub.”

But don’t call it an office. It’s not. I checked. It’s definitely a talent hub, according to a rep who clarified, “Doner doesn’t have plans to hang a sign or open a Chicago office. With so many significant hires, and potentially more in the future, they’ll be working from the Stagwell space in Chicago,” in a hybrid work model.

Okay, no office for Doner in Chicago, just people at the agency working there. In a talent hub.

They do have a leader, however. Julio Desir, who joined Doner in December of last year, has been promoted to executive vice president and executive creative director of the Chicago hub. According to the rep the Chicago folks have been reporting to Desir "but now Julio is taking on a larger, enterprise-level leadership role with scaling Doner’s presence in Chicago as a key strategic imperative." 

Sounds like one day, after some scaling, that Chicago hub evolves into an office. Or maybe just a bigger talent hub. Who knows, guess we'll find out.

Desir, a Detroit native has spent most of the last two decades in senior creative roles in the Chicago agency world. Prior to joining Doner he was creative director at Dentsu’s mcgarrybowen.