Andre G. Gray has come aboard Grey New York as an executive creative director.
During his career, Gray has led global campaigns for Adidas, Gatorade and Nissan. A native of San Francisco, he has spent five years in Paris and three years in Amsterdam at TBWA/NEBOKO as global creative director. Most recently, he spent a stint at Eleven in his hometown as executive creative director.
“We are so lucky to have Andre’s extraordinary talent at Grey,” said Justine Armour, chief creative officer of Grey NY. “In addition to all his professional achievements, Andre is deeply committed to advocating for underrepresented voices. He is already shaping our work and our culture to drive equality and make us a more inclusive company.”
Gray is the author of Digital Anthropomorphism: Humanizing the Brand. The book lays the foundation for understanding the way brands leverage our natural psychological tendency to understand things in human terms.
“There is a palpable energy and momentum building at Grey,” said Gray. “My initial conversations with John Patroulis (Grey Group’s worldwide CCO) and Justine Armour were very honest and centered around the creative possibilities where everyone can bring their entire selves to work, no matter their background or what they look like. They have welcomed me wholly and I am excited to build that type of environment with them.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More