A sea change has happened at the executive level at Aegis Media Canada with several senior-level appointments announced today.
In order to bolster the company’s presence and leadership in Toronto, Aegis Media Canada CEO Jacques Dorion said a restructuring that’s been ongoing for the past month is now finalized.
Aegis is the corporate parent to media agencies Carat and Vizeum Canada, as well as agencies iProspect and Isobar.
“I’m based in Montreal and can’t be in Toronto every week, and with Toronto being the centre of Canada for advertising, it’s important that we show strong leadership in the community,” said Dorion.
“We have a strong offering already in the Montreal market, but in the Toronto market for many years we lacked visibility. So we brought in new leadership, new blood in the Carat and Vizeum team.”
Annette Warring, formerly COO of Vizeum Canada, is now COO of Aegis Media Canada, a newly created position overseeing both the Carat and Vizeum brands. “We run into conflicts very easily in Canada; our competitors sometimes have three car brands in the same company. There’s got to be solid representation of Aegis and we thought Annette was the best person to do that,” said Dorion.
Warring is leading a new team in Toronto and will be focused on helping build client relationships. “Annette showed a lot of leadership when she presented to Coke under Carat last year and Beiersdorf under Aegis Media Deep Blue,” said Dorion.
Dorion said of the two pitches, the company won the Beiersdorf business and even though it didn’t win Coke, “we went through some very positive vibrations in Toronto.”
He added that the company finished 2010 with 8% growth in the market and is currently pitching three big pieces of business in Canada. (They are up against OMD for Disney, but the outcome isn’t confirmed.)
Also part of today’s announcement, Sasha Grujicic will be working directly with Warring. Grujicic was appointed SVP, group strategy at Aegis Media Canada earlier this year and will also “stimulate similar groundbreaking and disruptive thinking” at the company.
Caroline Gianias has been appointed EVP, trading and communication activation. Meanwhile, Jennifer Clark is now VP, consumer insight.
“We’ve consolidated our leadership with Jennifer and Caroline, who worked mostly on Carat previously,” said Dorion. “Now they’ll be working on Vizeum also, on research… We’re consolidating our buys.”
The executive restructuring does not include a replacement for Carat Toronto COO Cynthia Fleming, who left in March 2010. The role has changed, with Alastair Taylor now promoted to VP, managing director of Carat Toronto. He was previously with Carat U.K.
Additional promotions announced today are Micheal Bispo, who has been promoted to SVP, managing director at Vizeum and Lisa Hudson, who has been promoted to SVP, managing director of Aegis Media Deep Blue.
