Brett Marchand, formerly EVP of Cossette in Toronto, has been named the agency’s new president and COO. He will now oversee Cossette’s global operations, which includes offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, New York, LA and five agencies in London.

Marchand’s appointment will allow chairman and CEO Claude Lessard to shift focus away from day-to-day global operations to areas such as senior client relationships and major new business initiatives worldwide.
Marchand says that he will take over where Lessard left off, forging a new strategic plan with his executive team.

‘It will be more of a balanced look at the Cossette world and not just at Canada and the acquisitions that we’ve made in other countries,’ Marchand says. ‘We’re really operating Cossette now as three countries – Canada, the US and the UK and starting to look at how those countries can work together…We’ve got a big pitch in New York right now and we sent resources from Toronto, Montreal, London and Vancouver there. So the way you grow internationally is you think like an international company.’

Of taking up Lessard’s previous responsibilities, Marchand says he has huge shoes to fill. ‘Not very many people talk about it, but this is the most successful businessman in our industry in the history of this country,’ he says. ‘He’s the Ted Rogers of our industry…It’ll be a challenge to live up to him.’