Balcom Agency Promotes Freer to President, Glover to CCO

Balcom Agency, a full-service advertising/branding agency founded in 1993, announced the appointment of two long-time leaders to new positions within the organization, effective Jan. 1, 2024. Ashley Freer will serve as president, and Carol Glover has been appointed the company’s first chief creative officer.

A 25-year marketing veteran with agency, corporate and nonprofit experience, Freer joined Balcom in 2009 and has led large accounts, strategy work and strategic communications projects for 14 years. Prior to moving to Fort Worth, she held marketing, communications and public relations roles at BlueLinx Corporation, Atlanta History Center and Ogilvy Public Relations. She is an award winning professional recognized by the local and regional chapters of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the International Association of Business Communicators, PRWeek, the Fort Worth and Atlanta chapters of the Public Relations Society of America and others. In addition to agency leadership, Freer served as the 90th president of the Junior League of Fort Worth, has been a director on national and regional nonprofit boards including Mayfest and Fort Worth Sister Cities International, and is a member of Leadership Fort Worth’s 2015 class. She has been named to Fort Worth Inc.’s annual list of 400 Most Influential People in the city since 2020. In her new role, Freer will build agency business, nurture client relationships and support client strategy, as well as drive agency growth and operations.

left – Ashley Freer; right – Carol Glover
Images courtesy of Balcom Agency

Since joining Balcom as its first creative director in 2004, Glover has transformed the company’s creative abilities, championed excellence and developed award winning work in branding, advertising, multimedia, video, web/digital, social media and content development. With 35 years of experience, she is a recognized creative leader honored with more than 400 local, regional and national Addy Awards, including dozens of Best of Show, Best of Broadcast, Best of Print and Special Judges awards as a writer and creative director. Glover has served on the board of AAF Fort Worth, is often chosen as a speaker at various industry and client events, and has been featured in Adweek, Communication Arts, Print Regional Design and more. She taught as an adjunct professor at Texas Christian University for 13 years while working at Balcom full-time. She was awarded an American Advertising Federation (AAF) Silver Medal in 2013 for outstanding contributions to the profession, including her position as vice president and creative director at Witherspoon Marketing Communications prior to joining Balcom. In her new role, Glover will steer all creative output through the agency, along with key strategy and culture work.

Both Freer and Glover have been partners in the organization for more than five years, alongside principals Steve Cantrell, Toni Stuard and Chief Executive Officer Stuart Balcom who founded the agency.

“I’ve worked with Carol and Ashley for many years, watching them outwork the competition and out perform for clients, time and time again,” said Stuart Balcom, CEO. “They are each transformational, powerhouse leaders and mentors, and I could not be more proud and happy to appoint them to these two crucial new positions at Balcom. I’m immensely proud to call them our future.”

As a full service agency, Balcom puts the power of “and” to work for brands, using expansive thinking to deliver exponential results. The agency combines powerful insight, creativity and technology to craft compelling stories that move brands forward.