Left to right: Erica Baker, Megan Ward and Emily Black
Firehouse, an independent agency in Dallas, announces the promotion of two team members to partner and another to principal, as the agency celebrates being named among Ad Age’s Best Places to Work for the second year in a row.
Megan Ward, Director of Operations, and Erica Baker, Group Account Director, have been named partners at the shop. Ward has been with Firehouse for 14 years and served in a number of roles before becoming operations lead. Baker celebrates 10 years with the agency this year and has led businesses that include Baxter Auto Group, Trupanion, Texas Dairy Queen, Bellevue University, and Nothing Bundt Cakes.
“Both Erica and Megan have truly committed to Firehouse. Since Day One, both have viewed their roles as making the agency and its output better. In addition to their day jobs, Erica leads the agency’s DE&I initiatives, and Megan leads community outreach programs and partnerships like the one the agency enjoys with Richardson high school JJ Pearce,” said Steve Smith, CEO.
Emily Black, Group Account Director, was also named Principal after joining the agency in 2020 to lead the Lennox Residential business.
“Part of being a great place to work is ensuring the right leadership is in place. For us, that means leaders who share a consistent set of values and who help foster living those values amongst our team. It also means leadership that is focused on developing talent and shepherding careers as opposed to managing tasks,” said Tripp Westbrook, agency president.
As the agency helps diversify voices in the advertising industry with the promotion of three female employees, for the second year in a row, it has been named as one of the best places to work in the industry. Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2023 is a nationally recognized ranking of companies that lead the pack in factors ranging from pay and benefits to corporate culture and leadership.
The winners—top companies with 200 or fewer employees and top companies with more than 200 employees—reflect the highest overall numerical scores based on an analysis of questionnaires submitted by employers and survey responses from their employees.
Firehouse was one of only two Dallas agencies to make the list.
Ad Age’s scoring system factors in employee responses on topics including pay and benefits and seven other core focus areas (75% of the score) and a company’s policies and practices on areas including pay and benefits, work/life balance, recruitment, training and development (25% of the score).
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