Austin-based innovation agency T3 hired Christian Barnard as chief operating officer and Nelan Schwartz as chief technology officer. Ben Gaddis, formerly chief innovation officer, will now serve as president, while founder Gay Gaddis will focus on her duties as CEO.
“Our management group could lead agencies anywhere in the world,” said Ben Gaddis in a statement. “It speaks volumes about our clients and our unique culture that this talent wants to do great things at T3.”
Barnard joins T3 from Razorfish, where he served as group vice president leading the agency’s Austin office since the beginning of 2015. That followed two and a half years as vice president of SapientNitro. Before that he spent four and a half years as CEO of Deft Strategy, which he co-founded in June of 2010 after three years as global vice president of frog design.
Schwartz joins T3 from frog design, where he has spent the past sixteen years. Most recently he served as executive technology officer, heading up frog’s technology offering in Europe from its Munich office since April of 2012. He originally joined frog as a developer in 2000, working his way up to technology director in 2007, principal technologist the following year and associate technology director in 2011.
Ben Gaddis originally joined T3 as director, mobile and emerging media strategy in April of 2009, following two years as vice president, business development for Omnicom-owned ipsh. He was then promoted to vice president, growth and innovation at the beginning of 2011 and chief innovation officer around two and a half years later.
“This move is a natural evolution in T3’s growth, in retaining our 27 years of independence and in expanding our collaborative Think Tank model to develop innovative, useful experiences for our clients,” Gay Gaddis said.