The Canadian Marketing Association has announced a new Chair of the Board, selecting RBC CMO Alan Depencier for the role.

Depencier was elected to the CMA board in 2019, and has contributed as a member of the CMA’s Member Engagement and Human Resource Committees, chaired the Finance and Audit Committee, and served as board vice-chair before his latest appointment.

Depencier, who works as chief marketing officer of personal and commercial banking and insurance for RBC, has worked in senior marketing roles at the bank for nearly two decades, including seven in his current role. Prior to RBC, he managed CPG brands and led the growth of a startup venture. 

Along with Depencier’s appointment, the CMA elected five new senior members as directors to further diversify its board, expanding the board to 16 members. The organization’s new board members are Telus senior legal counsel Sophie Deschênes-Hébert, Blend360 senior partner Bilal Jaffery, George Brown College School of Marketing associate dean John Peco, Canadian Tire senior vice-president of marketing and brand Eva Salem, and Environics Analytics executive vice-president and chief strategy officer Evan Wood.

Depencier will work with the CMA’s CEO and executive team to work on futureproofing the marketing industry through training marketers in generative AI, making the Chartered Marketer Designation more accessible to marketers at different career stages, advocating on key topics like privacy reform and the Competition Act, and the Digital Marketing Skills Canada initiative to upskill and support marketers in transition and from under-represented groups, to find new jobs.

The move follows the CMA recently appointing Barry Alexander as chief marketing and diversity officer, and Natasha Upal as chief membership and learning officer, late last year. Kerri Dawson previously served as CMA chair, appointed to a two-year term in 2022.