Manulife appoints new global chief communications officer

Laura Vallis has been hired by Manulife as its new global chief communications officer, effective June 15.

Vallis will be based in Toronto, reporting to chief human resources officer Pam Kimmet.

She joins the financial company from Barclays, where she spent more than two years as a managing director and global head of corporate communications. Vallis brings a wealth of international experience, having been chief of staff to the president at Dow Jones and holding progressive corporate affairs and communications roles for AB InBev in Belguim, the U.K. and U.S., with over nine years at the brewer.

Snap enlists Zulubot as first Canadian AR producer

Zulu Alpha Kilo’s content studio Zulubot is the first Canadian company to be enlisted by social media company Snap to develop the platform’s popular AR lenses.

Though Snap has added new offers to make the creation of AR experiences on the platform more accessible in recent years, it still works with a number of “lens producers” who work on more sophisticated and creative AR experiences.

The company says demand for AR content has continued to grow, particularly in Canada. Enlisting Zulubot will not only help Snapchat and its Canadian advertisers create custom experiences on the platform, it is also aimed at improving localization efforts for 10 million local users.”

Talk Shop names new managing partner

Vancouver PR and communications firm Talk Shop added Katie Stevens to its partnership group.

Stevens first joined the agency as an account associate in 2011, taking on progressive roles until being named VP of operations in 2018, and helped grow the agency by 30% year-over-year. In addition to joining Talk Shop co-founders Katie Reiach, Sara Padidar and Beth Boyle as a partner, Stevens will also take on managing partner duties, overseeing offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.