• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 26, 2022

Two veteran ad pros, Ted Kohnen and Michael Ruby are launching a new agency called Park & Battery.

The name comes from the fact that they worked together both in New York (on Park Avenue South) and in San Francisco on Battery Street.

Kohnen serves as CEO and Ruby is assuming the role of President/Chief Creative Officer.

The agency’s offer includes brand strategy, creative/design, content, and media/go-to-market solutions.

Most recently, the duo led a startup agency for martech company Transiris called Retina.  Kohnen was CEO and Ruby led brand strategy and creative.

Since leaving Retina at the start of the year the pair has been busy setting up the new agency and lining up staff for offices in San Francisco and New York as well as charter clients.

So far the firm has more than a dozen accounts including Facebook parent Meta, real estate company eXp World Holdings, Esquire Bank and Flexport, the Softbank-backed freight technology company.

Prior to Retina the duo worked together at B2B agency Stein IAS where they helped build out the shop’s San Francisco office. Stein was CMO and Ruby was executive creative director, Americas.

Park & Battery has also created the role of “CMO in Residence.” The inaugural holder of that post is Karyn Scott, a marketing executive who has served at Cisco, Salesforce, Adobe and Flexport.

Also joining the leadership team is Rebecca Falk, vice president of client services, who worked with Kohnen and Ruby at Retina and Stein IAS. 

More about the new agency can be found here.