John Killam, chief operating officer and chief growth officer at Innocean Canada
Innocean Canada bolsters its executive team with industry vet
Innocean Canada has appointed John Killam to chief operating officer and chief growth officer.
Based out of the Toronto office, Killam will lead the Hyundai/Genesis shop in its day-to-day operations in Canada, driving its ongoing digital transformation, while continuing to accelerate new business growth for the agency.
Killam’s career started with a focus on digital and CRM, then evolved into leadership roles at some of Canada’s leading creative and media agencies, including Omnicom, WPP and IPG.
Killam joins Innocean Canada from Ostrich Studios, where he was president. Prior, he was CEO of Ogilvy Canada. Killam was also chief client officer at OMD, where he ran the Rogers and PepsiCo media accounts. While at Omnicom, he spearheaded an initiative to create Red Magnet, an integrated agency offering for Rogers.
Past clients include Chevrolet, Cadillac, Rogers, RBC, TD Bank North America, PepsiCo (Canada & US), Amazon Prime Video (global), IBM, Unilever (Canada & global), Kimberly-Clark, Mondelez, Pfizer and Pizza Hut.
“His experience at smaller independent and bigger network shops, coupled with leadership in creative and media, are a perfect match for Innocean Canada with its large full-service offering, entrepreneurial spirit, and big ambitions,” says Innocean Canada president and CEO, June Hong.
Chelsea Thompson-O’Brien, new VP of CX strategy for VML Canada
VML Canada adds former Experience.Monks exec as VP
Chelsea Thompson-O’Brien is VML Canada’s new VP of CX strategy.
Thompson-O’Brien was most recently strategy director with Experience.Monks, which is part of the Monks network. Her area of focus across 80 different projects was business transformation, brand positioning, creative strategy, product innovation, virtual experiences and pitching. She worked on the Netflix, Google, Red Bull accounts, as well as with biotech and professional services brands.
Thompson-O’Brien was previously a senior strategist with Wunderman Thompson, where she worked with multiple clients on projects ranging from creative strategy, product design, digital transformation, CMS integration, content strategy and communications design. Her client roster included Volkswagen, Dairy Farmers of Canada and Danone.
A Miami Ad School guest lecturer, Thompson-O’Brien was also founder and brand strategist of the Pat Collective.
Tartanbond adds an associate director
Bojana Duric is now an associate director at full-service integrated marketing and comms agency, Tartanbond.
Duric was most recently account director with Blue Sky Communications. While there, she was a main client contact, offering counsel and managing clients in financial/professional services and healthcare.
Duric was previously a marketing communications manager for Toronto’s Idea Workshop, where she developed and executed integrated communications and marketing strategies for clients in architecture, real estate, design and non-profit.
In July, Tartanbond – which operates offices out of Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto – formed a strategic collaboration with Solv Communications to assist companies with reputation management.
