Andrew Simon will join Edelman Canada to lead its creative offering nation-wide as ECD.

Simon begins his new post, which was left vacant in July when Jordan Doucette returned to Taxi, on Sept. 9. When Doucette first joined in 2014, her role was limited to the Toronto office, with her purview expanded to all of Canada near the end of her term. Lisa Kimmel, president of Edelman Canada, says Simon will be stepping into the role on a national scale from the outset.

“We want Andrew to look at our assets across all of our offices and harness the power of our resources based on our clients’ need,” Kimmel says. “Jordan did a phenomenal job of laying down a solid creative foundation for us and showcased to our clients what is possible and what Edelman can deliver to them. Andrew is going to build upon that foundation, but I’m also looking for him to accelerate those ideas.”

Kimmel says the focus on hiring top-level creative leaders has been part of the agency’s move to more of a “communications marketing” offering, led by creative solutions that are focused on earned media and being “social by design.” She says the hope is for Simon’s experience to help Edelman accelerate the development of that offering.

“Andrew really believes in looking at problems through that lense,” she says. “He’s also experienced and seasoned, so as we go through this transition, we want someone that has experience as an ECD and a track record of being a transformational leader.”

Since 2014, Edelman’s creative team has grown from 12 to 21 staff members, with 12 in Toronto, eight in Vancouver and one in Montreal. While there are no specific hiring targets, Kimmel says she hopes bring Simon on will allow the agency to selling more, bigger creative solutions to clients in order to further grow its creative departments.

Simon has been CCO at Cundari since joining the agency in 2013 from Blammo Worldwide. Prior to that, he spent nine years with DDB Canada and has also held posts at JWT New York and Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles.

Last month, Edelman also hired its first CD for the Vancouver office, bringing Ryan Semeniuk on from Taxi.

In April, Cundari group CD Cory Eisentraut departed for a position at Havas Worldwide Canada, followed a month later by group CD Brian Murray filling the vacant CD position at DS+P.