Zulu Alpha Kilo is stacking its senior strategy team, announcing Thursday that it’s made its second senior-level hire in five months. Ebrahim El Kalza, formerly of Sid Lee, joined the Zulu team this week as senior strategic planner.
El Kalza (pictured) is reporting to Shari Walczak, strategic planning director, who left John St. to join Zulu in July. According to Walczak, Zulu’s clients are increasingly turning to the agency for assistance with both business and communication challenges. By adding an additional senior strategy seat at the table, Walczak said Zulu is able to address this demand.
“When it comes to strategic planning, that senior bench strength is critical,” she said. “With someone like Ebrahim, and myself when I joined the team, it’s a matter of bringing experience across categories, with different consumer groups, on different types of business challenges.”
Zulu managing director Mike Sutton said he was impressed with El Kalza’s experience with consulting, brand management and planning at Sid Lee, but also his research background, honed during a four-year stint at In-Sync.
Sutton said after a long search, Zulu selected El Kalza because of his fit with the agency’s corporate culture and ability to handle both strategic and creative thinking. “By discipline he’s a strategic planner, but he’s really a creative guy,” Sutton said. “Here at Zulu, strategic planning and creative aren’t really different departments. Our strategic planners work hand-in-hand with creatives. He’s a super collaborative guy, so I think the thing with him was fit.”
El Kalza has already moved forward with work for Zulu clients, including Audi and Jack Astor’s, though Sutton said he won’t have specific client assignments.
