Montreal-based Mexx Canada, which owns Liz Claiborne, is launching a new chain, Yzza, targeting the 35+ female shopper. Anne Marie Caron, currently marketing manager for Liz Claiborne, will assume the same position for the new chain. Caron says Yzza’s campaign will be PR driven until the stores open in the fall.

Here’s a switch: Former Labatt brand and promotion manager Liz Sharp has left the brewer after nine years to become VP marketing of Waterloo, Ont.-based Habitat for Humanity. ‘I wanted the work I do to have meaning,’ Sharp says, adding that she plans to work with AOR Lowe Roche and newly hired PR agency Maverick to move the brand from ‘more functional to

emotional’ marketing.

Direct Energy has expanded the role of its top marketing spot and hired Sandra Kenney as SVP group marketing to fill it. Interestingly, the firm wants to ‘promote a culture of passion’ for its North American customers, says Kenney, who was previously CMO for Cayman One, a telecom start-up company. She replaces Terry Taciuk, who was SVP marketing.