PJ Pereira, Cannes Jury President, Joins AKQA as Executive Creative Director

PJ Pereira, Cannes Jury President, Joins AKQA as Executive Creative Director AKQA continues to attract world's hottest creative talent SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- PJ Pereira, President of the of 2005 Cyber Lions jury for the Cannes International Advertising Festival, has joined AKQA as Executive Creative Director. (Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050118/NYTU099 ) PJ was formerly the Vice President and Creative Director of AgenciaClick, the largest Internet agency in Brazil. He has over 16 years of experience in the interactive marketing and advertising industry with 35 international awards in the past seven years including 13 Cyber Lions, a Cyber Lion Grand Prix, 8 One Show Pencils, 1 Grand Prix and 5 Golds at the London International Advertising Festival. "PJ is the leading interactive creative director and agency entrepreneur from Latin America and we are thrilled that he will be joining AKQA's creative team," said Tom Bedecarre, CEO of AKQA. "His extensive international experience and creative insight will be an enormous asset for our clients and inspiration to our team." "AKQA has gathered some of the best creative talent in the world and it is an honor to be part of this team," said Pereira. "With the current team in place, as well as the new talent we'll hire, our goal is to create original, effective and memorable work." Pereira, a Brazilian native, is widely accepted in the global creative community as a visionary. At AgenciaClick, he lead two different creative teams, headed by local creative directors and divided into design, online advertising and information architecture groups. His agency was twice recognized as Agency of the Year by iBest, Brazil's most prominent interactive competition. Three of the world's brightest creative directors have joined AKQA in the past 90 days: Lars Bastholm from Framfab, Rei Inamoto from R/GA and PJ Pereira from AgenciaClick. Alongside Executive Creative Directors from AKQA's London office, James Hilton and Daniel Bonner, these five will form the agency's global creative council. "2005 is going to be a breakout year for AKQA," said Bedecarre. "We're very eager to see the exciting work that PJ and Rei and Lars will develop for our clients." Pereira, who speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish, enjoys painting African tribal masks which have been internationally exhibited. About AKQA AKQA is a global interactive marketing agency that uses innovative ideas and technology to deliver results for the world's leading brands such as Nike, Visa, BMW, palmOne and Microsoft Xbox. Ranked in the top five interactive agencies by Advertising Age and twice recognized as the "Most Respected Agency" by New Media Age, AKQA has offices in San Francisco, Washington D.C., London and Singapore. More information about AKQA is available at http://www.akqa.com/. For more information: Molly Parsley, 415-645-9473, molly.parsley@akqa.com Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050118/NYTU099 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN6 PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: AKQA CONTACT: Molly Parsley of AKQA, 415-645-9473, molly.parsley@akqa.com Web site: http://www.akqa.com/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment