Rethink Hires Wieden+Kennedy Veteran Don Shelford as Executive Creative Director

Today, Rethink announced the hiring of Don Shelford as executive creative director of its Vancouver office. Together with Leia Rogers, partner and executive creative director, Don will help to lead Rethink’s Vancouver creative team, building and mentoring the staff. He also joins ECDs Morgan Tierney and Hans Theissen.

“Part of what drew me to Rethink is the fierce commitment to independence. I’ve spent time in the machine of holding companies where advertising is controlled by accountants, which was eye-opening. I believe that the right philosophy is that creativity is good business, and that’s in Rethink’s DNA.” 

Don’s CV is one for the books: He spent much of his career leading award-winning creative at Wieden + Kennedy’s Portland and Amsterdam offices. He’s created Cannes Grand Prix-winning work for Volkswagen and Mailchimp. He’s run a 130-person social agency through the dark days of covid, and most recently was the global group CD, leading creative for five of Wieden + Kennedy’s offices for the Visa global account. 

With deep international experience, Don’s overseen work for Nike, Levi Strauss, Coca-Cola, Google, TikTok, VISA, Gatorade, JPMorgan Chase, CNBC, Mailchimp, EA Games, PayPal, Venmo, Target, Dove and the United Nations in New York, Boston, LA, Portland, Amsterdam–and now–Vancouver.   

Don’s also worked as a director on the production side making commercials, comedy shorts for Funny Or Die!, a slew of music videos, a record launch, a video game, and comic books for cult musician Daniel Johnston. Now, he joins Rethink in Vancouver and is sharing his excitement about the agency, and Canada. 

“Vancouver is new territory for me, and I’m really excited to tap into the potential of this market,” said Don. “There’s incredible creative talent and great work coming out of the city. We have big ambitions to firmly cement Vancouver on the advertising world stage, where it belongs.” 

“I’m beyond excited to start working with Don,” said Leia Rogers, ECD and partner. “He’s made so much incredible work over the years, and as soon as we started talking, I knew he was a Rethinker. He’s kind, he’s fun, he’s ambitious, and he’s laser-focused on creating really good work.”

As a creative leader, Don is used to mentoring and nurturing all kinds of creatives. “There’s no one way of getting the best work out of creatives because there are so many different personalities,” said Don. “You’ve got extroverts, shy people, and to me, it’s a 1:1 process to build trust and give people the environment they each need to do their best work because it’s a vulnerable process, showing work to somebody — as a baseline, you need a lot of trust to operate in that space.”