- Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK R/GA has poached another AKQA executive for its nearly year-old San Francisco outpost.
 
The Interpublic Group digital agency hired Peter Cole as technology director for the office. Cole worked at AKQA for eight years, most recently serving as director of creative development.
 
Cole (shown at right) is the latest AKQA vet R/GA has hired. It brought on Mauro Cavelletti as executive creative director of its San Francisco office last April. Cavelletti and Cole worked together at AKQA on projects for Nike, Microsoft and Coke. It has also hired a few other staffers from AKQA. The office has 21 staffers.
 
R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg stated the rationale for opening the office in San Francisco was a hunt for talent, although he said the shop would compete as much with tech companies like Google and Yahoo as agency rivals like AKQA.
 
San Francisco is not the only place R/GA has looked to AKQA for talent. In London, it hired AKQA exec Jim Moffatt last year to lead its office there.

R/GA's clients in San Francisco include Hewlett-Packard, Nike and the Standard Insurance Co.