Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles has named Lalita Koehler executive director of integrated production, effective May 1.
The hiring of Koehler marks the third high-profile talent acquisition for Saatchi LA in the last 11 months, following the hiring of chief creative officer Jason Schragger in June of 2014 and executive director of talent, Kirk Guthrie, just three months later.
As the agency of record for Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. for over 30 years, Saatchi LA employs more than 450 full-time staff.
Koehler, a native of Brazil, has more than 15 years of experience in helping stories come to life. Prior to working in advertising, she spent half a decade at Yahoo!, where she produced and launched many products.
After the birth of her daughter Chloe and a break from working in Silicon Valley, Koehler decided to bring her knowledge to the advertising industry, working in San Francisco, first at Pereira O’Dell and, later, with DOJO.
When the family moved to France, the veteran joined TBWA DAN Paris as head of production. It was there that she first demonstrated her multi-disciplinary beliefs, creating an integrated production department at the agency, which directly led to award-winning work for clients such as Dom Perignon, Michelin, PlayStation and SNCF.
After returning to the United States a short while later, Koehler joined The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., as executive integrated producer, working for several clients, including Mentos, Pizza Hut, Tylenol, Walmart and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
In 2013 she moved to Los Angeles. Since her arrival in Southern California, she has done project work on the rebirth of Myspace, and on the Apple 30th anniversary project as well as on iPhone 5C.
Most recently, Koehler served as executive producer at Omelet, producing work for AT&T, Microsoft, Square Enix and Ubisoft.
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