Hires, promotions and other news

Staples Canada has named Mary Sagat as president, effective Sept. 7. Sagat has been with the company 19 years, serving as SVP of finance and, most recently, SVP of sales and operations. She will report directly to Steve Matyas, president of North American retail. Reporting directly to Sagat will be Pete Gibel, SVP of merchandising, Gogi Grewal, SVP of business services, and Craig Taylor, SVP of ecommerce and marketing, along with the soon-to-be appointed SVP of sales and operations.

Edelman Canada has announced a senior-level hire and some promotions made over the past few months. Greg Vanier joined the shop in May as vice-president, crisis and risk.  He was previously director at Global Public Affairs. In his new role, he is leading crisis and risk for Edelman’s Data Security and Privacy practice. Additionally, the agency has promoted Marissa Smith to vice-president of health and Alexis Redmond to SVP of client strategy, a new role. Smith has been with Edelman since 2008, while Redmond joined in 2006 and most recently served as vice-president of the corporate practice. Meanwhile, Dave Fleet has been made EVP and national practice lead of digital, and Tristan Roy has been promoted to managing director of digital for Canada and Latin America. Fleet joined Edelman in 2010 and was most recently SVP of its Eastern Canada region, while Roy has been managing director for Edelman Digital in Canada since 2012.

FCV Interactive has promoted Lisa Brown to vice-president and managing director for its Toronto office. Brown joined FCV in early 2015 and has been an important part of its growth, leading the Toronto office as managing director and leading the North American business development team. She will continue leading that team in Toronto while also taking on additional strategic account management responsibilities.

Media

Twitter Canada has hired former political candidate and TV personality Jennifer Hollett as its new head of news and government. She takes over the role from Steve Ladurantaye, who left Twitter in April to become the digital managing editor at CBC News. Meanwhile, the social media company has also hired  Laura Pearce as its head of consumer marketing, the first at a country level for the company.

Starcom Canada has hired Mike Rumble as its new chief strategy officer. He will take on his new role next month. Rumble is currently SVP and chief strategy officer at Cossette Media.

The CRTC has issued an order to remove simultaneous substitution (or simsub) from the Super Bowl starting in 2017, calling the U.S. commercials an “an integral element of the event.”