Following the departure of Mario Daigle, KBS+ Montréal has a new president – Annie Aubert.
Daigle told Marketing in a short email that he felt it was time to leave to agency, and that he recommended Annie Aubert as his successor. “I’m really glad she got the position,” said Daigle, who now acts as a consultant.
Aubert joined the agency in October 2012 as executive vice-president of account services. She has previously worked at Les Évadés, Cossette, Loblaw and Fido.
Aubert’s promotion was announced simultaneously with that of Nick Dean, who has been serving as president of KBS+ Toronto since January. (The agency, once known as KBS+P for Kirshenbaum, Bond, Senecal and Partners, has recently dropped the “P” from its branding.)
In a statement, the agency said the promotions were in line with the “culture of marketing invention” approach spearheaded by Lori Senecal, its chairman and CEO.
“Today, innovation is not enough,” Senecal said in a release. “Genuine invention is required to create the kind of impact that delivers real competitive advantage for our clients in today’s marketplace. We need to be inventors focused on creating industry firsts.”
Aubert’s main challenge in the short term will be to build in Montreal the “invention culture” ethos that she said is already well in place in her company’s New York office, where the affiliated Spies & Assassins operates as a technology incubator and studio.
The agency also recently named Cameron Wykes its chief invention officer. His duties now include overseeing a research and development team that operates in Toronto and Montreal. “This team’s mandate is to create inventive solutions to answer our clients marketing challenges,” Aubert said.
