People on the Move

Russell Hollander, DGA national executive director, has announced the promotion of two Guild executives. Danny Bush has been promoted to associate national executive director/Western executive director and Cynthia Tollett has been promoted to assistant executive director. 
 
Bush will join associate national executive directors Bryan Unger and David Korduner in focusing on the growing challenges of national and international representation of directors and their teams in all genres represented by the DGA. He will also continue his regional responsibility, as Western executive director, for administration of the West Coast Office. Bush will report to Hollander.

Tollett, previously associate general counsel in the Guild’s legal department, will step into a new role overseeing the signatories department, and will be more involved in the enforcement of the Guild’s contracts. She will report to Bush.

“I am pleased that Danny will be joining Bryan and David in focusing on the big-picture issues affecting our members as the film and TV landscape continues to shift technologically and globally,” said Hollander. “Cynthia has been an invaluable part of our Legal team with a deep understanding of our Guild’s contracts, and our members will benefit as she applies her expertise in this new role.”

Danny Bush
Bush joined the DGA in 2012 as an assistant executive director in the Guild’s Los Angeles headquarters, focusing on areas related to representation, contract enforcement and organizing. He was promoted to Western executive director in 2015--overseeing a substantial expansion of the Guild’s Contracts department, as well as the growing Western field representative program that visits members on film, TV and commercial sets, sporting events, and local stations across the country and in Canada. 
 
Bush came to the DGA from Bush Gottlieb, a union-side labor law firm, where he was an attorney representing public and private sector labor unions, and also served as lead negotiator for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Previously, he worked for the SEIU as an organizer. Bush received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Cynthia Tollett
Tollett joined the DGA in 2009 as an attorney, and was promoted in 2015 to associate general counsel. Tollett joined the Guild from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton where she was an attorney focused on mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance issues. She received a B.A. from the University of Texas, an M.A. from Rice University, and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law.

The creative team of Fernando Carrion and Rodrigo Bistene has joined FCB New York as sr. copywriter and sr. art director, respectively. The duo, aka The Raccoons, comes over from VML.

Hailing from Mexico and Brazil, Carrion and Bistene are most renowned for their work in creating the Proud Whopper campaign for Burger King, winner of 13 Cannes Lions, and for convincing people to follow Pepto Bismol on Twitter.

The Raccoons moniker springs, in their own words, from they’re being “social creatures who like to work in groups. We appear to be harmless but we can turn pretty wild when an opportunity arises. But more than anything, we can easily find hidden food and fall asleep in unexpected places.”

Young & Laramore, a creative agency based in Indianapolis, has appointed Grace Gibbons as its newest account manager and Catherine Watson as associate account manager.

Gibbons will manage, review and deliver projects for Y&L’s KraftMaid Cabinetry client. She will be reporting directly to VP of account management, Nick Prihoda. Prior to joining Young & Laramore, Gibbons served as account associate at Willow Marketing.
 
As associate account manager, Watson will be working with clients including Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, American Standard and Matilda Jane. Before joining the team, she served as account executive at Curiosity 360 where she worked with brands such as Cincinnati Bell, MedVet Emergency and Specialty Animal Hospital.

Erica Jacquez will join the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as executive in charge of government affairs later this month. 

Russell Hollander, associate national executive director of the DGA, said of Jacquez, “Her deep experience in government affairs and in D.C. will be a significant asset in advocating for our members on the critical policy issues that impact their work and economic and creative rights. We look forward to putting her expertise to use on behalf of our membership.”

Jacquez will be responsible for the Guild’s federal legislative and governmental work, and will serve as an advocate for the DGA and its members on key issues such as intellectual property, copyright and anti-piracy protections; federal and state incentives for runaway film and television production; and issues relating to the protection of DGA members’ creative and economic rights. Jacquez will also coordinate and manage the work of the DGA Political Action Committee (PAC) and DGA PAC Leadership Council. 
 
Jacquez comes on board following the retirement of longtime government affairs executive Kathy Garmezy. Jacquez joins the Guild from AltaMed Health Services--a network of community health care providers for underserved communities throughout Southern California--where she was associate VP of government relations. In Washington D.C., she served as a legislative analyst at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and prior to that as a Congressional relations officer at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. Earlier in her career Jacquez was the main community liaison for Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.
 
Jacquez received both her doctorate in policy, planning and development, and M.P.A. from the University of Southern California. She earned her B.A. in criminal justice from California State University, Fullerton. She is also a graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Leadership Program.