AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--T3, one of the world’s leading innovation agencies, has expanded its management team with the hire of former Razorfish Group Vice President Christian Barnard as Chief Operating Officer, and former frog Executive Technology Director Nelan Schwartz as Chief Technology Officer. At the same time, Ben Gaddis will take the reins as president, and agency founder Gay Gaddis will focus on her CEO role with additional emphasis on speaking to industry and women’s groups on the power of leadership and entrepreneurship.
“Our management group could lead agencies anywhere in the world,” said Ben Gaddis. “It speaks volumes about our clients and our unique culture that this talent wants to do great things at T3.”
Barnard joins T3 from Razorfish where he was Group Vice President leading the Austin office operations. Barnard brings more than 20 years of experience from some of the world’s leading design and technology consulting firms. Along with Razorfish, he also served in management roles at SapientNitro, built out the global delivering function for frog, and managed the UX design, strategy and content team at AT&T.
Schwartz joins the agency after 16 years at frog, most recently as Executive Technology Director in Munich. Schwartz also brings more than 20 years of industry experience and will manage T3’s extensive technology group. He spent the majority of his career at frog where he was instrumental in building out frog’s technology capability across Europe.
In his new role as president, Ben Gaddis will continue to grow T3’s leadership as an innovation agency, focusing on agency culture and client strategy and service. “The work we are doing now goes beyond marketing. We are creating customer experiences so powerful that our clients can measure them on their balance sheets,” said Ben Gaddis.
Ben Gaddis joined T3 in 2009 and was part of the agency’s management team as Chief Innovation Officer. Before T3, he worked at Omnicom-owned ipsh, where he developed enterprise-level mobile strategies for Frito-Lay, Nokia and AT&T; T:M Interactive, where he helped American Airlines launch its first mobile initiative; and at The Richards Group in account management.
“This move is a natural evolution in T3’s growth, in retaining our 27 years of independence and in expanding our collaborative Think Tank model to develop innovative, useful experiences for our clients,” said Gay Gaddis.
T3’s management group also includes: Lee Gaddis, Chairman; Mary Arnold, Chief Financial Officer; Jennifer Mollo, Executive Director, Client Service; Jay Suhr, Chief Creative Officer; Chris Wooster, Executive Creative Director; and Leah Heck, Executive Director, Internal Development.
About T3
Founded in 1989, T3 believes that a brand’s highest calling is to be useful. T3 builds useful brands for Allstate, 7-Eleven, Staples, UPS and other innovators. T3 ranks as a top innovation agency by Forrester and is among the largest independents in the country with offices in Austin, Atlanta, New York and San Francisco.