We Believe

In 1997, at just 29-years old, Mark made the brazen decision to leave one of the largest agencies in the nation and found Firehouse. Not surprisingly, the ambitious and idealistic attitude that led Mark to take that step is a trait that’s now ingrained into the agency’s DNA. Over the years, Mark transformed Firehouse from a small promotions company into a full-service advertising and branding agency. In addition, Mark helped create, and now sits on the board for, the 1 Million for Anna Foundation, whose mission is to help eradicate the childhood cancer known as Ewing Sarcoma. But at the end of the day, the tightknit, family-like culture at Firehouse is the accomplishment Mark is most proud of. That, and being a part of The University of Texas’ 1990 Elite 8 basketball team. Even if he didn’t get off the bench much.

Steve has led strategy and planning at Firehouse for over a decade. Honored as Dallas’ Best Account Planner in 2011, Steve brought extensive experience on brands such as Nestlé, Quaker Oats and 7-Eleven to Firehouse and has been the driving strategic force behind the agency’s award-winning work for Interstate Batteries. His idea to combine our planning, media, PR and social media disciplines into a single strategic team was not only ahead of its time, it helped Firehouse earn AdAge’s Southwest Small Agency of the Year in 2010. Steve sits on the Board of Directors for both the Dallas Farmers Market Friends and Taylor’s Gift Foundation and is the agency’s unofficial official bartender. 

Since joining the agency in 2000, Doug has helped guide Firehouse from a scrappy little startup to one of the region’s industry stalwarts. But Doug is so much more than our CFO; he’s also the brains (and heart) behind the agency’s multiple philanthropic initiatives, such as our annual Make a Difference Day, our ongoing partnership with Anne Frank Elementary School and our Christmas Wish program, which helps families in need at a time of year they need it most. Doug is also a pretty good golfer… according to Doug.

Prior to becoming Firehouse’s Executive Creative Director in 2007, Tripp’s award-winning career included stops at The Martin Agency, Riney & Partners, Fallon NYC and GSD&M, working on celebrated brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Wrangler Jeans, United Airlines, Time Magazine and Land Rover, to name a few. Over the years, Tripp has collected Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils, EFFIE Awards and produced one of USA Today’s Top 100 Super Bowl Commercials of all time. Under his creative leadership, Firehouse has been recognized by The One Show, The Webbie Awards, Communication Arts, The OBIES and was named AdAge’s Southwest Small Agency of the Year in 2010. Tripp also spends some of his spare time restoring old Land Rovers, and then paying someone else to do it correctly.

Shortly after joining Firehouse, Amanda spearheaded projects for Interstate Batteries and Colonial Williamsburg that led to some of the most successful and award-winning work the agency has ever done. We weren’t at all surprised. Fact is, when it comes to big brand experience, few can top the number of names on Amanda’s list. Throughout the course of her account management career, which included stops at Publicis, Euro RSCG and The Marketing Arm, Amanda has been a part of projects for Coca-Cola, Dunkin Donuts, Cheetos, Greyhound, Tostitos, Meow Mix, Baskin Robbins, Juicy Juice, Power Bar and Ruffles. From national campaigns featuring Olympic athletes to bowl game halftime shows, Amanda has done it all. She also says she surfs, but since there are no oceans nearby, we’ll just have to take her word on that.

When we say that Erica is a driven, motivated and organized person we’re not just blowing smoke. She’s the kind of person who makes normally driven and organized people feel like sofa surfing slackers. Why? Because in just five short years, she’s gone from being an account executive on some key agency accounts to being the account director on one of our largest. From leading major strategic advertising initiatives on Texas Dairy Queen to overseeing planning and execution on Nothing Bundt Cakes, National Cheerleaders Association, and others, she does it all with the style, grace, flexibility and work ethic you’d expect from a former professional ballet dancer. In fact, she may be the only person at Firehouse who can, quite literally, bend over backwards for our clients.

Since joining Firehouse in 2009, Nichole has grown a once-fledgling media discipline into a full-service department that handles traditional, digital, social, search and analytics for clients of all shapes and sizes. Her passion for staying on top of, and leveraging, the latest trends in ad tech helped Service King Collision Repair become the first brand in the nation to buy digital out-of-home programmatically. Nichole also helped Interstate Batteries earn “Best of Show” at the 2017 Interactive Marketing Association Awards for a multi-media campaign that featured mobile video delivered only to users with low phone batteries. Combine those efforts with her previous experience on brands such as Nissan, Pepsi and Gatorade and Nichole is probably the sharpest tool in the Firehouse shed. Okay fine, she definitely is.

Trae leads our planning department. Prior to joining Firehouse, however, Trae honed his strategic abilities in New York City. At Landor, a Y&R company, Trae took part in branding, packaging, innovation and new product development projects for clients such as Captain Morgan, Crown Royal and Ernst & Young. While at Future Brands, he helped build out their North American Innovation and Insights Division on behalf of brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois and Yellow Tail. Trae’s final stop in NYC was at Anomaly, where he was tasked with growing the agency’s innovation and design discipline for the likes of Febreze, Gillette, Trident, Johnnie Walker and Duracell, to name just a few. So yeah, Trae is a pretty smart guy. Especially for a Horned Frog.

Megan joined Firehouse’s Account Management team in 2008, quickly gaining a wealth of knowledge and expertise on the production of print, out-of-home and broadcast for clients such Dr. Pepper, Sonic Drive-In and Stripes Convenience Stores. In 2012, Megan became the agency’s first-ever Director of Project Management, and was tasked with developing and implementing a revamped agency process that would allow our quickly growing company to become even more efficient. She did just that. But on top of being the most organized person in the agency, Megan is also the keeper of the Firehouse culture, helping to meticulously plan every major event we’ve had since the day she arrived. Megan is also very good at foosball, which she’d be happy to tell you about, while destroying you at foosball. 

Blair joined Firehouse in 2012, and the agency and its clients were immediately better for it. Blair’s experience rebranding a giant regional energy company as well as her time spent on heavy-hitter brands such as Frito-Lay, Nokia and T-Mobile made her an indispensable asset from day one. At Firehouse, Blair has run point on award-winning accounts of all sizes, such as Stripes Convenience Stores, The National Cheerleaders Association and Texas Wesleyan University. She also helped lead the charge as Nothing Bundt Cakes grew from 30 to 200 bakeries in just five years. And did we mention Blair also took it upon herself to create the agency’s intern program from scratch? We didn’t? Well she did.