McCann Canada has made another addition to its leadership team, hiring Caroline Murphy for the newly created role of SVP of brand development.
Murphy joined McCann in January of last year as a part-time consultant supporting the agency as director of communications. In her new, full-time position, Murphy will join the agency’s executive leadership team in a dual role that will see her oversee national marketing communications for all McCann Canada offices and brands – including Momentum, MRM//McCann, McCann Health and Craft – as well as leading the agency’s new business development.
Prior to joining McCann, Murphy had senior leadership positions at MSLGroup, Mosaic, Harbinger Communications and Veritas.
“With us throughout our major transformation last year, [Murphy] was instrumental in the repositioning and rebrand and took on many roles throughout the process,” David Leonard, CEO of McCann Canada, said in a press release. “The ability to manage several mandates and her breadth of experience across agency brands, was the perfect choice for this new role.”
The transformation McCann Canada has been experiencing over the past year has included numerous new appointments to the agency’s leadership team, including a new president for McCann West, a new managing director for Commonwealth/McCann and a new president and VP of client services for McCann Montreal.
“Watching the transformation last year, I played a role in that, and working alongside some of the smart, talent and strategic people made me want to stick around and continue to be a part of it,” Murphy says. “When David mentioned he was looking for someone to help on this front, it’s always been a passion of mine at agencies I’ve been at in the past, so it was a perfect opportunity for me.”
In addition to the communications side of the role, she will also be looking to find new ways to work with clients, now that agency is turning its attention to focusing on growth.
“Bringing multiple disciplines together is where I’ve succeeded in the past,” Murphy says. “Because we are a multi-faceted business with all this expertise in one house, it’s about bringing the best of those to the table for our clients. It’s less about looking for new clients and more about finding and building some mutually beneficial partnerships that are going to drive our clients’ business forward, regardless of which discipline we’re working in.”
