Ted Royer–who had been placed on leave with an investigation initiated to look into his conduct–was fired on Thursday (2/1) from his post as chief creative officer of Droga5 New York. The agency issued a statement which read: “Droga5 New York has ended its employment relationship with Ted Royer, CCO. We are committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive environment for all our employees. We are unable to comment further on personnel matters”….
Creative and digital agency We Are Royale, with shops in Los Angeles and Seattle, has hired Eric Zapakin as head of production. Zapakin brings more than a decade of production experience in branding and entertainment/sports content and marketing. He will work closely with We Are Royale partner/managing director Jen Lucero, overseeing all systems and strategies for the company’s in-house creative production capabilities spanning design, animation, live-action, and VFX applications. Zapakin will also work in parallel to head of digital production Beck Henderer-Peña, who directs Royale’s diverse range of next-level digital experience offerings, such as AR/VR development. Zapakin joins Royale from Imaginary Forces, where he was a sr. producer, developing marketing strategies for theatrical studios and producing OTT content, including Threads, an episodic series for Verizon’s go90 video streaming service. A graduate of the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, Zapakin entered the entertainment industry at Los Angeles-based creative agency Big Picture Group. He advanced his career at branding and strategy agency Troika, climbing the ranks from associate to sr. producer during his six-year tenure with the company. During this time, Zapakin contributed to a wide range of assignments, including rebrands, show/content packages and 360 marketing campaigns for brands, such as Time Warner Cable, STARZ, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, CBS Sports, and ESPN….
Editor Kyle Valenta has joined Work Editorial Los Angeles. His new roost will represent him globally. Previously at Cartel, Final Cut and W+K/Joint (an agency in-house shop where he started his career), Valenta has to his credit such notable work as Guinness’ portrait of L.A.’s “Compton Cowboys” for AMVBBDO London and director Henry-Alex Rubin of Smuggler, Dodge’s “How To Change Cars” for W+K Portland and director Christopher Riggert at Biscuit Films, and Apple’s “Your Verse” directed by Emmanuel Lubezki and Chris Wilcha of Park Pictures….
Copacino+Fujikado, Seattle, has hired Mark Billows as associate creative director. Pulling up roots, Billows jumped from Boston to Seattle to join the C+F team. He will report directly to Mike Hayward, executive creative director. Billows comes to Copacino+Fujikado from Arnold Worldwide, where he held the title of creative director for two years. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate creative director at BBDO. Earlier in his career he was a sr. copywriter at AKQA for two years and at The Martin Agency for four years…
