The marketing world never sleeps, which means there are bound to be things that fly under your radar. To make sure you’re up to speed, here’s some news you might have missed over the last week:
Hires, promotions and changes
National Public Relations has closed out the year with a number of leadership changes. National managing partner John Crean will be departing the agency at the end of the year to pursue new opportunities, while Kim West (pictured, right), previously director of integration, has been promoted to chief client partner. Crean has been with National since 1992 (save for a one-year stint at Veritas and two years at Res Publica sister agency Cohn & Wolfe). In her new role, West will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the office’s marketing, technology, corporate, public affairs, government relations and healthcare practices. In Montreal, the agency has also promoted Stephanie Lyttle and Kristin Gable to directors of the office’s healthcare group, having held interim leadership positions of the group over the past several months.
The Institute of Communications Agencies has announced its 2016 Board of Directors and Governors. Penny Stevens, president of Media Experts, has been named the chair of a board that includes vice chair Paul Reilly (SVP and executive managing director, BBDO Canada), Duncan Bruce (president and CEO, Publicis), Andy Krupski (chairman, The Hive), Arthur Fleischmann (president and CEO, John St.), David Leonard (CEO, MacLaren McCann), Greg Power (president, Weber Shandwick Canada), Jennifer Steinmann (president, Cundari), Jill King (president, Sandbox Advertising), Jim Kabrajee (president and CEO, Marshall Fenn), Melanie Johnston (president, DDB Canada), Rob Woyzbun (managing director, Vector Media), Stephanie Nerlich (president and CEO, Grey Canada), Tim Bowen (CEO Canada, Rivet) and Gillian Graham and Jani Yates (both of the ICA).
David Gibb, EVP and managing director of J. Walter Thompson, will chair the newly appointed Board of Governors, which provides strategic counsel. Its members include Alvin Wasserman (president, Wasserman + Partners), Andrew Kirby (VP of client services, Sapient Nitro), Aviva Groll (group account director, Ogilvy), Brett Channer (founder and CCO, Mass Minority), Bob Froese (CEO, Bob’s Your Uncle), Cathy Collier (CEO, OMD Canada), Dave Carey (president and partner, Cummins & Partners), Dave Wilkin (CEO, Ten Thousand Coffees), Jill Nykoliation (CEO, Juniper Park\TBWA), John York (president, Rain 43), Ken Christoffel (CEO, Brown Communications), Kevin Johnson (CEO, MediaCom), Lori Billey (partner and CEO, Red), Matt Shoom-Kirsch (VP of client services, Taxi), Paul Hickey (president, BrandHealth Communications), Peter Kwan (president and CEO, Innocean), Rico DiGiovanni (president, Spider Marketing) and Stephen Kiely (VP of client services, DentsuBos).
Toronto’s Armstrong Partnership has hired Chris Seguin as creative director. Seguin, one of 13 new hires at the agency this year, was previously group CD in charge of the RBC account at MacLaren McCann before leaving the agency in February. (Pictured, from left to right: founder and CEO John Armstrong, Seguin and ECD Joel Trojanowski.)
Marie-Luce Ouellette, who has spent the last 11 years with A2C in a variety of communications and marketing roles, has been hired at Lg2 as its new brand officer. She takes over the duties previously held by Charles Durivage, communications officer, who is leaving the agency at the end of this week.
Media
Programmatic marketing company The Exchange Lab has been acquired by GroupM. Co-founder and CEO James Aitken will be leaving to pursue new opportunities, with executive chairman Chris Dobson moving into the roll.
IPG Mediabrands has merged M2 with Initiative to create a single unit. President Leeanne Comish will leave M2 with Initiative president Adam Luck moving into a head of digital growth and innovation role within IPG, with a new president at Initiative to be named in the new year.
