Jun 03

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

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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. 

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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Mar 03

Former RAPP, CP+B Executives to Lead Doner LA

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doner team

MDC’s Doner announced plans to expand its Los Angeles office beginning with the appointment of two new executives: ECD Jason Gaboriau and Managing Director Zihla Salinas (both of whom will also hold the executive vice president title).

Gaboriau, who was a member of the post-Bogusky team at CP+B, left that agency last fall after nearly four years during which he worked on Old Navy, A1, Grey Poupon, and various other accounts. Earlier in his career, he co-founded New York’s Amalgamated, which became Silver+Partners and will now close following Eric Silver’s February move to McCann.

While Gaboriau is modest about his CP+B work, the release tells us that he “grew the agency from a small production outpost with one client to a fully integrated agency with over 100 employees and several clients.” He replaces Rob Palmer, who left one month ago to accept a CCO position at area startup Fuhu (maker of the Nabi tablet for kids).

The move will allow Doner to “grow and define [its] vision for the future” by (possibly) doubling down on digital.

Salinas, who served as SVP of strategy and development at the larger MCD organization after spending four years as CMO at RAPP, will oversee all office operations and work closely with Gaboriau. In previous positions she specialized in “the rapid expansion of digital strategies,” hinting that Doner clients such as The UPS Store, Menchies, Neato Robotics, and Jafra International will see more digital work in the future. The agency also reportedly looks to hire in the coming months.

Both new executives will report to co-CEO/President David DeMuth and co-CEO/CCO Rob Strasberg.

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