Ottawa-based animation studio Mercury Filmworks has landed its first chief talent officer (CTO) to help accelerate its rapid expansion.

David Keneford, formerly an interim HR leader at Ottawa’s Innovapost (a Canada Post company), and VP, chief human resources officer at Empire Life Insurance Company, is tasked to build a high-performance talent management infrastructure, focusing on talent acquisition, onboarding, talent management, learning and development.

In his CTO role, Keneford will hire approximately 30 people in a wide range of junior and senior positions over the next few months. Priority hires include the positions of Line Producer, Art Director, Senior Character Designers, Senior Layout Artists, Senior Location Designers, Senior FX Designers, Animators, and FX Artists. Keneford will report to Mercury Filmworks founder and CEO Clint Eland.

Some of his hiring efforts will be concentrated at the 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival, held this year from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3, where Mercury Filmworks is sponsoring the Pitch This! Competition.

Keneford will also lead recruitment efforts at multiple industry events next year, including the Toronto Arts Animation Festival International (TAAFI.)

Building future relationships and partnerships for the company on an educational level with animation colleges, Keneford will be offering internship co-ops and sponsoring scholarships and awards and continue to develop the unique culture that distinguishes Mercury Filmworks from other animation production studios as it continues to grow.

“As we continue to grow our service work as well as our own IP, we welcome David, a progressive human resources leader to our team,” said Eland in a statement.

“He will spearhead efforts to recruit the best talent not only from Ottawa, but from around the world, and build a best-in-class talent management infrastructure that invests in the careers of our artists and technologists and supports them in building meaningful and satisfying careers with the company.”

It’s been a notable expansion: in 2021, Mercury Filmworks bowed Sungate Films, a live-action prodco that’s currently developing the kids series Arrow Radio and is, along with Vancouver’s Goodbye Productions, co-producing its first feature film with Once Our Land, a 2D-animated film about a 19th-century apocalypse.

Other Mercury Filmworks projects in the works include the sci-fi adventure series Bloopy Merps about a rules-loving robot and a soft-hearted alien on a mission to terraform a lifeless planet that’s not quite lifeless; Octicorn, a series about a half octopus and half unicorn who has trouble finding friends that’s based on Amazon Book of the Year Hello My Name is Octicorn from debut authors Justin Lowe and Kevin Diller; and the 3D, CG-animated series Pangor’s of Puddle Peak, targeted for a 4-to-6 year- old audience that’s been created by the company’s chief content officer Heath Kenny.

The studio is also currently working on several work-for-hire projects for Disney and Netflix, including the two-time Emmy Award-winning Hilda, developed and produced with Silvergate Media and Netflix.