Claude Auchu (left), executive director and head of design at Lg2, and Marc Fortin, COO and creative director at Lg2 Montreal

As part of a leadership succession plan announced last year, Lg2 has given new roles to a pair of long-time creative leaders in Montreal.

Claude Auchu has been named executive director of Lg2’s board, while retaining his previous role as head of design. Marc Fortin has been named chief operating officer in the agency’s Montreal office in addition to his role as creative director. Auchu and Fortin both joined Lg2 in 2006.

Auchu takes over the executive director position from agency co-founder Sylvain Labarre, who is now moving into retirement as part of the succession plan that saw new presidents and owners take over leadership of Lg2’s three offices last year.

Mathieu Roy, president of Lg2 Montreal, says the board elected Auchu as its new executive director because it felt he was someone who could carry and represent the agency’s entrepreneurial spirit and creative reputation.

“We also wanted someone who wasn’t a president,” Roy says. “Our offices work very autonomously, and we work very closely in our regions and with our clientele, so we wanted someone that could bring an extra level of synergy to the board.”

Fortin is the first COO Lg2 has had in Montreal. Roy says the appointment of a COO was in response to growth in client work. Having Fortin in this role will allow him to focus more on the internal operations and the creative product in the office, with Roy focused more on client relationships.

“To put it more simply, I will be focused on the outside, while Marc will focus on the inside,” Roy says. “The growth we’ve experienced hasn’t simplified anything, but our goal is to maintain our efficiency while also working very close with our clients. By bridging operations and product, we think we have a solution that would be directly aligned with what we want to do here. Marc has led our creative offering and been part of our agency for so long, it was only natural to have him take this kind of position.”

Roy says the long-term vision for Lg2 remains the same: preserving the agency’s culture and what has made it successful, especially for when it comes time for the next generation of leaders and owners to take over.

“Everything we’re trying to do is to protect our future and the DNA of the agency,” he says. “We want to create an agency culture that remains attractive for future generations of agency owners and be better organized to suit today’s needs, which are always evolving. It’s about growing without getting big. We want to remain agile and nimble and build that sentiment of pride within the organization that is so special for us.”