Doner L.A. Adds a Trio of Account and Production Hires

By Erik Oster 

Doner L.A. made three appointments to its account and production departments. Hamid Saify joins the agency as vice president, account director, Julian Smith was appointed as director of digital production and Scott McDonald arrives as a digital producer. 

Saify arrives at Doner from California ticket exchange company Razorgator, where he served as senior vice president, marketing for the past nine months. Prior to that he was agency-side with Deutsch, where he spent over five years as vice president, search marketing and paid social. In his new role with Doner L.A., Saify will report to managing director Zihla Salinas

Smith most recently served as program manager for Rosetta, working primarily on Samsung. Before that he spent nearly four years at Deutsch as senior integrated producer, digital, working on the agency’s Volkswagen, Pizza Hut and Sprint accounts. Prior to Deutsch he spent four years with AKQA as project manager and then senior project manager, leading digital interactive marketing campaigns, primarily on the agency’s Visa account. 

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McDonald joins the agency from Thirst Agency, where he was responsible for running operations and connecting brands, studios and start-ups with agency partners. He began his career as an architectural draftsman, moving on to become a set dresser, a production designer and then directing and producing digital content. 

The new appointments follow the arrival of five new creatives last month and the agency winning AOR duties for Children’s Mercy Kansas City.

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