Hasta La Creative!

Publicis Seattle hired Jason Tarantino as executive vice president, executive strategy director on the agency’s T-Mobile account. In the new role, he will direct strategy while leading a team of seven executives and reporting directly to EVP and managing partner Melissa Nelson.

“Jason is an incredibly thoughtful strategic leader and we’re thrilled to have him on board,” Nelson said in a statement. “As a truly hybrid thinker, he’s well suited to lead our growing T-Mobile strategy team here in Seattle.”

Tarantino joins Publicis following nearly a year as a freelance strategic planner, a period during which he worked on various projects for Los Angeles-based agency Phenomenon. Prior to that he spent a year as vice president, planning director with RPA, leading strategy on Apartments.com and Intuit’s QuickBooks.

The RPA gig followed a nine month stint with TBWAMedia Arts Lab as group planning director. Tarantino previously spent a year as SVP, group planning director with The Martin Agency on the Walmart account, two years leading the planning department at R/GA’s San Francisco office, and a year with W+K as a senior strategist working with clients including Verizon, Levi’s, Electronic Arts and Target.

“It’s invigorating for me to work with a team that has done not only bold creative work, but drove results,” Tarantino said. “After all, there’s nothing better than great work that does great things. And I’m looking forward to continuing that trend by bringing a deep understanding of T-Mobile’s business together with provocative insights into people, culture and brands.”