MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER, which may be the most inconveniently named agency in the industry (love you guys), promoted four executives to associate partner status.
Director of creative services Katy Aquino, director of media Eric Perko, newly-promoted group creative director Joel Kaplan and Carolina Cruz-Letelier, who also was promoted from group account director to director of client services, were named as associate partners.
The promotions follow MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER’s deal to form an “international creative partnership” with VCCP last May.
“We’re excited that people here have been self-selecting as leaders,” agency co-founder John Matejczyk said in a statement. “They weren’t waiting for anyone to tap them on the shoulder before they started taking initiative to make the work, and people, around them better.”
Aquino, Perko, Kaplan and Cruz-Letelier will join Spear Nicholson, who was named a partner in September, Matejcyk and co-founder Matt Hofherr on the agency’s senior leadership team.
“Eric, Carolina, Katy, and Joel deepen our management bench as Associate Partners, and join Partner Michelle Spear Nicholson in bringing our vision of ‘professionals in the industry formerly known as advertising’ to life,” Matejcyk added. “They’ve already done amazing work in blurring the lines between areas of expertise in media, strategy, creative, and production. They’ll continue to bring this approach to bear on work for our clients.”
Kaplan originally joined MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER as creative director in April of 2015, following a year as a freelance creative director and copywriter with agencies including Media Arts Lab, CP+B, Mekanism and EVB. Before that he held positions as a creative director with AKQA, associate creative director with Eleven, Inc. and senior copywriter with Pereira & O’Dell.
Cruz-Letelier joined the agency as an account manager back in October of 2011, receiving a promotion to account supervisor nine months later. She then was named an account director at the beginning of 2015 and group account director that August. Before joining the agency she spent a little over two years with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in account management positions, working with clients including Chevrolet and Denny’s.
Perko joined the agency from DigitasLBi in October of 2014. At Digitas he served as an associate media director and then vice president, director, media, leading media strategy on Taco Bell. Before that he served as a senior media strategist and associate media director with Swirl.
Aquino joined the agency in April of 2011, following over three years as creative services manager, project manager with 180LA.