Vanessa Eaton, president, and Bruce MacLellan, chair, of Proof Strategies.

As it enters its 30th year of business, Proof Strategies has named a new lead for its Canadian operations by promoting Vanessa Eaton to president.

Eaton enters the role with nearly three decades of agency experience, more than two of which have been spent at Proof. For the past four years, she has served as EVP at the agency, where she oversaw its strategy, digital and creative teams in the Toronto office.

In her new role, Eaton will bring “a new perspective to lead, build and evolve the agency,” says Bruce MacLellan, founding president and chair of Proof.

Specifically, Eaton will be shifting her focus to the agency’s strategic growth, “while actively working on the business to elevate our talent, expertise and the calibre of solutions and results” that it delivers to clients, MacLellan says.

“Vanessa leads with optimism and integrity, and I have always valued her perspective. She shares my desire to continuously build on the cornerstones of what makes Proof Strategies special – our values, culture and standard of excellence,” MacLellan adds.

As Eaton takes the helm, she says that she will “maintain all the strengths that Proof Strategies brings today,” but will also be “capitalizing on the evolutionary opportunities that we see in our future.”

To that end, she will work closely with EVP Josh Cobden, also a veteran of the agency, who has collaborated closely with her for the past five years. Cobden will act as an advisor on several of Proof’s clients, while taking on additional management responsibilities.

MacLellan, meanwhile, will continue with the agency as its chair.

“We’ve been working closely together in management for almost a decade,” MacLellan says. “This will be a seamless transition.”