We Are Pi has expanded its team with five hires–head of integrated production Stephanie Whitehead, producer Angus Lees, account director Blyda Eksteen, sr. account manager Rebekah Guilar and strategy coordinator Thuy Pham. The additions come on the back of the Amsterdam-based agency’s biggest ever year with international business wins PepsiCo, Heineken, Nike and Amazon Game Studios.
Whitehead brings 20 years experience at such shops as Wieden+Kennedy, Sid Lee, 72&Sunny, BBH, Knucklehead and AnalogFolk. She’s delivered finely crafted award-winning work for brands including adidas, Absolut, Samsung, Corona, Google, Uber, Facebook, Rayban and Heineken. Whitehead has worked her way around the globe stopping in New York and London, before touching down in Amsterdam. Whitehead is returning to the We Are Pi “Pirate ship” in the new role after having produced some of its most iconic work for Desperados in 2016-2018.
Lees is a producer from London who has recently joined the We Are Pi ship. Originally training as a cinematographer, Lees has brought a breadth of film and photography knowledge to agencies across London from BBH to the & Partnership, Lees has worked on brands such as Lexus, NatWest, Audi and Virgin Media. Outside work Lees is in the concepting phase of a 10-part animation series.
Eksteen, born and raised in South Africa, comes to We Are Pi as an account director with over 10 years experience. She started her career by spending seven years at Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town, working on P&G Pampers and went on to lead the local and regional EMEA account for Mondelez brands Stimorol & Halls. With a longstanding goal to relocate overseas, Eksteen jumped at the opportunity to work in Amsterdam when she was recruited to work on Mars pet care brand Royal Canin at DDB Unlimited. There she led the global to local market integration and campaign development for over 40 markets.
Guilar was brought up in an Irish household full of music and creativity. She has always loved the idea of bringing art into our everyday interactions in the world. Her move to Amsterdam was spearheaded by landing a role at 72andSunny. Guilar has worked with such brands as Google, adidas, Unilever and Zurich Insurance.
Pham was born and raised in IJmuiden, a small town on the coast of The Netherlands. Thuy brings a background in fashion having worked for footwear brand Filling Pieces and most recently luxury e-commerce retailer Farfetch as a content writer. Earlier this year Thuy joined the PlusPlusOne talent program that We Are Pi co-founded, where she got her eye on the strategy side of marketing.
We Are Pi founder and CEO Alex Bennett Grant said that the new hires from five countries “each bring worldly perspectives that make our international strategies, creativity and culture more innovative.”
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More