Candace Borland and Dion Aralihalli have been with Anomaly Toronto since it opened in 2012, and have both now been promoted to newly created managing director roles.
Borland and Aralihalli are used to sharing titles; they were previously co-heads of client services at the agency and were splitting oversight of its major client relationships: Borland, for example, led Budweiser and Nike while Aralihalli took on Bud Light and Shocktop.
Anomaly Toronto CEO Franke Rodriguez (above, centre) said creating the managing director roles was necessary as the agency had become large enough to warrant it. It recently hired its 100th employee under the stewardship of three partners: Rodriguez and co-executive creative directors Dave Douglass (standing, left) and Pete Breton.
“We never needed a managing director before, to be quite honest, as a 40-person or 50-person agency,” Rodriguez said. “But as we scaled over the last 12 months… about three or four months ago, the conversation started on how to build out the leadership team.”
Rodriguez said the partners considered outside candidates for the job, but opted to promote internally to ensure the new leaders came already well-versed in the agency’s operations and culture.
