The recently independent agency Pereira & O’Dell named several new leaders in its San Francisco headquarters this week.
Rob Lambrechts and Jason Apaliski have been simultaneously promoted to executive creative director while Ryan Toland will be the agency’s sole director of client services and Henry Arlander will be the first managing director of its Bay Area office.
Lambrechts and Apaliski were two of the agency’s very first hires, and they have been helping to drive its creative output since joining at its inception in 2008. They were promoted to ACDs in 2009 and became group creative directors in 2015. The two have worked on LEGO, Intel, Captain Morgan, Coca-Cola and various other accounts throughout their 8-plus years with the shop.
“They dared to join me on this journey that I started in 2008 and are the spirit of our shop. This is honestly one of the proudest and happiest moments of my career,” said CCO and co-founder PJ Pereira in a statement.
Lambrechts started his career in accounts and worked as a copywriter at Creative Circus, BBH New York and AKQA San Francisco before moving to Pereira & O’Dell. The two have functioned as a team for some time, with Apaliski also working as an art director at Creative Circus and AKQA.
Toland (second from left) and Arlander (far right) co-led the client services team prior to their promotions. Now Toland will handle all related responsibilities while Arlander will manage the San Francisco office; he is the first to hold the GM title. The two will work together on “moving the agency forward and upward.”
CEO and co-founder Andrew O’Dell said, “I’m excited to announce this new leadership and the agency’s first Managing Director on the west coast,” adding, “Henry brings a level of depth and dedication to this company that is rarely seen and I’m especially pleased that the spot could be filled from within the agency.”
Pereira & O’Dell made news by breaking with its Brazilian parent company Grupo ABC approximately 16 months ago.
Since then, the shop has also racked up a series of new business wins including, most prominently: Sprite, Fanta, Sage Software, European Wax Center and Czech security tech company Avast. It has also begun working with Ignite on a pro-bono basis and recently promoted campaigns for Realtor.com.
Earlier this week, head of creative recruiting Janine Zaim went to Zambezi after nearly two years. Pereira & O’Dell is currently working with freelance recruiter Guillermo Perez, who has held related positions at 72andSunny, McKinney, Mekanism and JWT, and it plans to hire a full-time replacement for Zaim in the coming months.