Team announcement
Instrument Promotes Kara Place to President
PORTLAND, Ore., March 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Instrument, a digitally focused, creative agency built for change, today announces the promotion of Kara Place to President. In her new role, Kara will oversee delivery, staffing and recruiting, new business, and community partnerships to achieve consistent velocity and growth for the organization. She will lead eight Executive Directors and their respective integrated teams toward achieving both revenue and representation goals. She will report into Justin Lewis, CEO and co-founder of Instrument. Kara joined Instrument in 2013 as an executive producer and most recently led marketing and business development for the 270 person shop with offices in Portland and New York. Under her direction, Instrument achieved record growth in new business revenue as the agency was awarded AOR and project work from the world's leading brands including Twitter, Microsoft, Nike, Diageo, Salesforce, Qatar Airlines, and more. "Instrument has transformed radically over the past few years thanks to our unique expertise in helping brands create mission-critical experiences rooted in strategy and results, backed by cutting-edge technology and design," said Place. "Growing with this agency has been a dream and I am excited to continue pushing boundaries with our client partners and team members." Instrument also announces two additional promotions, including Stephanie Lanning to VP of Business Development, where she will report directly into Kara and absorb her day-to-day job functions inclusive of building the agency's new business pipeline and managing community partnerships such as pro bono work, volunteering, and giving. Stephanie joined Instrument in 2015 as a Senior Producer and was most recently an Executive Director leading the day to day operations and new business development for an internal team of 53 that was responsible for some of the Agency's highest-profile work including Twitter, PATH, Umpqua Bank, Greenhouse, Microsoft and Epic Games. Separately, the agency elevated Nishat Akhtar to Associate VP of Creative. In this newly formed role, Nishat will be building inspiration, learning, and development opportunities, cultivating best practices for creative mentorship within the discipline, while also inbounding a more diverse network of designers and writers to support the agency's accounts, including Nike, Levi's Google, Instagram, Facebook, and more. She joined Instrument in 2017 and was most recently a Creative Director managing creative across multiple projects and initiatives for our Nike North America digital marketing business. She previously held creative positions at Nike, Anthropologie, and Wieden + Kennedy. Nishat is also a design educator, teaching workshops across the globe and also has worked as an adjunct professor at Portland State University's Graphic Design Department, teaching courses in graphic design and visual storytelling. "This past year we created a culture of radical co-creation both internally and with our client partners to produce groundbreaking creative work that connected brands with their customers like never before," said Justin Lewis, CEO and co-founder. "Witnessing this made it clear that we needed to create new roles in order to drive radical co-creation throughout the agency, and I am so proud to elevate Kara, Stephanie, and Nishat to help achieve this."