From left to right: Gavin Drummond, Marie-Lise Campeau and Francesco Grandi.

Ogilvy has added to its Canadian creative leadership, bringing in Francesco Grandi as chief creative officer.

Based in Toronto, Grandi will work in close partnership with his Quebec-based co-COO Gavin Drummond to lead the agency’s Canadian creative offering as part of a recently unified national leadership team. Drummond was hired last year as CCO for Ogilvy in Quebec.

The duo will be responsible for overseeing the creative output for the agency’s local, regional and global clients, which include Mondelez, TD Bank, Unilever, Hellmann’s, Absolut, Pizza Hut and Kimberly Clark, among others.

This marks a homecoming for Grandi, who began his career as an intern in Ogilvy’s Toronto office. Since then, he has had stints at Rethink and Saatchi & Saatchi UK. Most recently, he was at Ogilvy London, where he was a CD on the agency’s global Dove masterbrand account. In Toronto, he will continue to play a global leadership role on the team working on the Dove Men brand.

Marie-Lise Campeau, president of Ogilvy Canada, called Grandi a creative powerhouse, citing his work on Dove’s “Toxic Influence” campaign, which was among the most honored campaigns at Cannes this past year. Ogilvy’s Toronto and London offices also have a track record on working together on Dove, which recently included “Courage Is Beautiful,” a double-Grand Prix winning Dove campaign that recognized what healthcare workers battled through early in the pandemic.

“[Grandi] is equally invested in building the careers of others,” Campeau noted. “It is just one of the many reasons we are thrilled to have him coming back home to Canada.”