Independent agency Zulu Alpha Kilo has named Emily Garvey as its first head of strategy in New York. She joins from Johannes Leonardo, where she most recently served as a group strategy director for over three years.

The Canadian agency’s New York office opened last year. In July 2022,  Tim Gordon, formerly a chief creative officer at Droga5, joined Zulu Alpha Kilo in the same role in New York. The agency hired former Goodby Silverstein executive Meghan Mullen as its New York managing director in December 2022.

During her time at Johannes Leonardo, Garvey helped bring in clients including Instagram, Oscar Mayer, HBO Max and Amazon Music. She worked on the agency’s largest client, Kraft Heinz, among others. Garvey previously held strategy roles at R/GA, Publicis Groupe’s Rokkan and 360i.

“Great strategy is the building block for great creative and Emily has proven she knows how to set up an agency for great success,” Gordon said in a statement.

ZAK’s New York office launched a year-long brand campaign for Booking.com beginning with this year’s Super Bowl, including a 2-minute musical featuring Melissa McCarthy that ran during the Oscars.

Other executives that recently departed from independent Johannes Leonardo include Bryan Yasko, its former president, and Ben Myers, the shop's former head of business development who was named TBWA’s first North America chief marketing officer in March. It was also recently reported that JL’s Chief Creative Officer Julia Neumann left the agency.