Erwin-Penland Names Four to New Group Creative Director Post

January 24, 2008

On the heels of a year that saw 30 percent growth and significant expansion of its creative team, Erwin-Penland, the South Carolina unit of Interpublic Group’s Hill Holliday, has created the role of group creative director and assigned four seasoned professionals to the new post: Cory Schearer, Rich Cutter, Joe Gilman and Karl Dunn.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have four talented, experienced creative leaders in Cory, Rich, Joe and Karl,” said EP Executive Creative Director Andy Mendelsohn. “Each of them brings a unique skill set to the table, and these appointments will help us leverage their expertise to the full benefit of all of Erwin-Penland’s clients.”

“The creative push that began when Andy joined Erwin-Penland in 2005 has helped us produce more compelling, more effective work for our clients,” added EP President Joe Erwin. “As our agency nears the 200-employee mark we’ve added tremendous depth to our creative team in particular, and the new roles these four will play are an important part of our continuous efforts to do really great work that produces outstanding business results.”

Schearer is the longest-tenured member of the group, having joined EP in 1997. The Montana native, who is also a vice president and member of the agency’s senior management team, works on such accounts as BI-LO, Lockheed-Martin, Uniroyal, Michelin and ScanSource.

Cutter also began his career at EP, starting off in 1998 as a graphic designer. Shortly thereafter he helped start the agency’s award-winning digital marketing unit, EPInteractiv, and now serves as creative director for that group, which today boasts more than a dozen designers, developers and interactive marketing strategists.

Gilman joined EP in 2000 after working for Bazil-Victory Advertising and DMB&B, where he handled such accounts as Denny’s, Anheuser-Busch and the St. Louis Rams. At Erwin-Penland his clients include Firehouse Subs, Wachovia, Advance America and two Charleston-area residential communities, Seabrook Island and Poplar Grove.

Dunn is the most recent addition to the EP team, having joined Erwin-Penland in 2007 after working in the New York ad scene for 22 years. With a resume that includes stints at such notable agencies as Young & Rubicam, Lintas and Warwick Baker O’Neill, today Dunn oversees EP’s work on Fatz Cafe, the Greenville Drive baseball team and Verizon Wireless, for whom the agency shares national retail advertising duties with sister shop Hill Holliday.