Claude Lessard, who heads Cossette Communication-Marketing, is the winner of this year’s aca gold medal for outstanding contribution in Canadian advertising.

An advance press release from Cossette says Lessard, president and chief executive officer of the Quebec-based Cossette, will pick up the top honor at the Association of Canadian Advertisers’ awards ceremony tonight at the Toronto airport Marriott hotel.

‘Winning the aca gold medal is a great honor,’ says Lessard, who set up the wholly Canadian-owned ad agency in 1972 as a graphic design company and has watched it grow into a fully integrated communications company with offices in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Cossette clients include General Motors Co. of Canada, McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada and Bell Canada.