Extreme Group and its Toronto-based president Geoff Craig have parted ways.
Craig joined the agency last May after spending nearly three decades client-side.
“He was there for the better part of the year and it was going well. We made a decision holistically to make some changes in the organization as it relates to structure,” said Shawn King, Halifax-based chief creative officer. “Those changes didn’t necessarily involve that role even.”
Prior to joining Extreme Group, Craig was senior vice-president of marketing and innovation at Maple Leaf Foods and before that oversaw marketing at Unilever. While there, Unilever produced award-winning work for Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” and Becel’s “The Heart Truth Campaign,” which helped earn the CPG giant Marketing’s Marketer of the Year honour in 2007.
When it came time to start the search for a new president after Andrew Doyle’s departure in 2010, Extreme Group sought someone who had never worked at an agency before.
“There’s more change happening now than I’ve ever seen in my 14-year career, and we don’t necessarily, as pure agency folk, understand the world clients live in and how those changes will impact marketing organizations,” Extreme Group CEO Paul Leblanc told Marketing last May.
“Geoff is great and that’s why we brought him in,” said King. “I think anybody coming into a new world will have to do some work to get up to speed on that world and he was great at digging in… That really had nothing to do with our decision to re-org the whole thing.”
Cagey on details, King would only say the agency is evaluating what the best structure is to have for its Toronto and Halifax offices, and that there’s more news to come.
In an e-mail, Craig told Marketing, “I have tremendous respect for Extreme and they are a great agency… I learned a great deal from my time there, including increased selling skills, exposure to a number of industry sectors and improved my social media skills.”
“Together we looked at the business and there was a need to restructure and streamline. I am looking to go back to the client side and build on my past experience and new learning.”
