Mercury Filmworks appoints chief talent officer ahead of recruitment drive

Canadian animation studio Mercury Filmworks has hired David Keneford as its first chief talent officer as the company embarks upon a recruitment drive.

David Keneford

Keneford will focus on talent acquisition, onboarding, talent management and learning and development as Mercury Filmworks expands its creative and technical teams.

The exec’s immediate priority is to lead Mercury Filmworks’ efforts to recruit for a variety of roles. Over the next couple of months, the studio is looking to hire approximately 30 people, from junior to senior positions, including a line producer, an art director, senior character designers, senior layout artists, senior location designers, senior FX designers, animators and FX artists.

Keneford will also lead Mercury Filmworks’ recruitment efforts at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival in September and at multiple industry events in 2022, including the Toronto Animation Arts Festival International. He will additionally spearhead the company’s one-on-one relationship building and partnerships with animation colleges, offering internships and co-ops and sponsoring scholarships and awards.

Keneford joins Mercury Filmworks from an interim HR leader position at Ottawa’s Innovapost, the IT shared services provider for the Canada Post group of companies.

Prior to that, he served as VP and chief HR officer at Empire Life Insurance Company, following executive-level HR positions with Assurant and Nortel.

Mercury Filmworks founder and CEO Clint Eland said: “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. 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.”