Performance Art has appointed a new general manager to oversee its Canadian operations, naming Tishan Canagasaby to the role in Toronto.

Canagasaby, whose official title is EVP and general manager, moves from John St., where he had been working as EVP of account management. He brings more than two decades of account services experience to the new role, working in increasingly senior positions at ICOM, MacLaren McCann, BIMM and Cossette. He has worked on brands including SickKids, TD, Audi, General Motors, Shaw, Telus, Tangerine, RBC, Boston Pizza, Maple Leaf Foods and TJX.

At Performance Art, he will be tasked with overseeing the agency’s Canadian operations, including developing its talent, culture and growth strategy. He will also be responsible for the agency’s North American tech team, which works with clients on both sides of the border. He will act as a counterpart to Stefanie Kubanka, who was named last month to lead Performance Art’s New York office, while Andrea Cook remains the agency’s global CEO, overseeing operations in both markets as well as planning for possible future expansion.

“We’ve grown rapidly since our launch in July 2021 – more than doubling our business, in fact. We see that trajectory further accelerating into 2024, and having the right leaders in place is critical to successfully scaling at such a rapid pace,” says Elizabeth Sellors, global chief operating officer for the IPG-owned data-driven creative agency. “When we met Tishan, we knew he could be an integral ingredient to the future of Performance Art. He’s passionate about work that lives at the intersection of data and creativity, and he has a proven track record of building strong teams, creating strong culture, and helping clients innovate and grow.”

For his part, Canagasaby says the agency “masterfully uses data and technology to push creativitity to the edge,” and that he “can’t wait to unlock even more data-infused creative solutions to help the agency’s clients and impact the world.”

Rapid growth is nothing new for the agency, which has drawn considerable awards success for its work on Black & Abroad’s “The Black Elevation Map” at Cannes and the One Show.