MDB Communications added Rob Gerds to lead its Client Services team.

“We are focused on building the senior agency management team in D.C., and bringing Rob on board is a demonstration of that,” said Cary Hatch, CEO of D.C.-based MDB Communications. “His strong agency management and strategic planning background is a great fit for us as we grow.”

According to MDB, Gerds brings “deep marketing, agency management and strategic planning experience to MDB. He’s led teams at national agencies like FCB in Orange County, Hal Riney & Partners and Grey Advertising in San Francisco, as well as at regional creative powerhouses like BaylessCronin in Atlanta.

“He started and managed two companies, his own ad agency and later a consultancy focusing on brand planning and the 50+ market. Perhaps his most interesting role was as senior consultant at Wanamaker Associates, the leading marketing management consultancy in Atlanta, helping clients in agency selection, compensation development and relationship management studies. In addition, he has been a client as well, as VP/Marketing & Sales for Elder Care Alliance. Rob’s career has been built on a simple premise: creativity drives business forward.”

MDB, a Capitol Communicator sponsor, added that some highlights from Gerds’ career include:

Elder Care Alliance: centralized the marketing function, and led the organization to record NOI through an innovative integrated marketing campaign.

BaylessCronin: grew agency from 6 to 60 and sold to Omnicom, while building programs for Coca Cola, Johnston & Murphy, Wachovia Bank and BellSouth.

Hal Riney & Partners: Launched Saturn Automobiles, and Riney Bradford Huber, the wholly-owned design division.

He has built successful programs on national brands like Ford, Mirage Resorts and Mazda; as well as regional accounts like Reliant Energy, AmSouth Bank, and Waffle House.

In his spare time, Rob believes in giving back, including a role as a grocery van driver at a low-income senior community that led to being President of the Board, as lead volunteer in his wife’s Atlanta City Council race, and a volunteer ombudsman for Long Term Care in D.C..