The founders of a North San Antonio marketing firm announced their retirement from the advertising industry, giving way to a trio of new leaders for the company.
According to a Sept. 13 news release, Texas Creative founders Brian Eickhoff and Jamie Allen have moved on after relinquishing leadership of the nearly 40-year-old company to new executives Ashley Landers, Josh Norman and Art Williams.
The release said Landers, Norman and Williams each are veterans of the local advertising, design, and development communities and have worked as a team for the last seven years to help grow Texas Creative’s portfolio as senior-level employees.
Landers, the new chief executive officer, previously was part of the Bromley Communications/Publicis Groupe era in San Antonio and as such led teams out of Saatchi and Saatchi New York to help represent Fortune and Global 500 companies, such as General Mills and Nestlé. Landers arrived at Texas Creative in 2015.
Williams, Texas Creative’s chief information officer, has spent the past 10 years as the firm’s technical lead. Overall, he has built a 20-year software development career while applying strategic expertise and thought leadership to client projects and open-source communities alike, the release said.
Norman, the company’s chief creative officer, began his career as a designer at the San Antonio Express-News and spent four years in higher education marketing at his alma mater, Texas Lutheran University, before starting work at Texas Creative 21 years ago, where he has led its design team for more than a decade, the release said.
Texas Creative is known for having spent decades leading marketing efforts for regional brands, such as Cirrus Logic, Food Related, Jefferson Bank, Renu Robotics, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Rackspace, the city of San Antonio, Bexar County and various Texas state agencies.
Texas Creative employs 25 full-time staff members, ranging from designers and developers to marketing and media experts.
Landers praised Allen and Eickhoff’s decision to sell a longtime business to their employees, keeping the venture local.
“It’s a win-win-win. The founders get to pass their legacy on to employees that know it best and can build on their success while keeping the current workforce intact thus supporting the local economy,” Landers said in a statement.
Landers also said she, Williams and Norman are proud of their work with Texas Creative and look forward to continuing to expand and improve awareness of local brands.
“Josh, Art and I are proud of that—we get to support our city by supporting our staff, their families and the many amazing brands that trust us every day,” she said.
