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 is advertising’s version of a Swiss Army knife. He went through the creative sequence at UT Austin and initially tried his hand at copywriting. He then had careers of over a decade each as both an account guy and a strategic planner. Since joining Firehouse in 2006, Steve has built and shepherded the growth of Firehouse's media and strategy disciplines to be one of the most awarded in Dallas. In fact, his idea to combine our planning, media, PR and social media disciplines into a single strategic team was not only ahead of it’s time, it helped Firehouse earn AdAge’s Southwest Small Agency of the Year in 2010. Today he draws on all of these diverse skillsets to effectively run Firehouse as Chief Operating Officer. Steve also serves as the agency's unofficial bartender and resident foodie.

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.

Since joining Firehouse in 2015, Amanda has 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.  When it comes to big brand experience, few can top the number of names on her list. Throughout the course of her 20+ year 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. From running multi-unit brands like Texas Dairy Queen, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Baxter Auto to translating brand strategies across national, local and promotional levels, 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.

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 has 11 years experience and a wealth of knowledge and expertise in production for print, OOH, digital and broadcast. Megan also led the charge in developing and implementing a new agency process for Firehouse that allows for efficiencies to better manage client projects. 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.