Barbarian, the digital creative agency backed by Cheil, has made a series of senior appointments, hiring Melissa Fry as director for people and culture, Shannon Rutkowsky as director of production and business management, Jo Hayes as director of data insights and analytics, and Adam Smith as creative technology director.

Fry, who had been with Keurig Dr Pepper, will report to Barbarian chief executive Steven Moy. Fry will scale and build a recruitment process for new talent and promote the agency’s progressive diversity and inclusion strategy. She will take on the key role of evolving Barbarian’s internal culture to make for an optimum working environment. Previously director of operations at Dr Pepper’s internal agency Liquid Sunshine, Fry has also served at agencies including Vayner and Crispin Porter+Bogusky and was studio manager for Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. 

Barbarian has brought on exec producer Rutkowsky as director of production and business management. Rutkowsky, who has a wealth of experience at agencies including Digitas, Wunderman Thompson and MRM/McCann, will take the lead on Barbarian’s original content creation. She will also oversee the newly created business affairs department and report to Barbarian’s managing director Courtney Berry. 

Hayes joins Barbarian from R/GA as director of data insights and analytics. Hayes was co-founder of Agency DEI, the industry diversity database, and has led measurement and solutions for brands including Samsung, Disney, Verizon and Uber. Hayes reports to Barbarian CSO Eliza Yvette Esquivel.

Creative technology director Smith, previously of Deutsch New York, will report to Barbarian director of technology Sunny Nan.

The infusion of talent at Barbarian complements other recent hires including Matt Longstaff as creative director, Ben Kravitz as group account director, Ricardo De La Cruz as IT director and Brad McGovern as software developer. There have also been seven promotions from within during the past six months.