Havas Worldwide is on a hiring spree in Canada.
On Friday the agency announced eight recent hires including Zeb Barrett, who joined the agency from Rethink mid July to take on the newly created role of vice-president of planning.
In his new position, Barrett will head up a new national planning group of strategists from both the Toronto and Montreal offices.
“This national planning group will act as a ‘superteam’ of strategists,” explained Havas Worldwide Canada COO Helen Pak. “All the cross-channel strategists will start working together. As we start to think about our integrated offering, I think this is a big step forward for us.”
Pak told Marketing Barrett was selected because of his planning experience at top tier agencies such as Anomaly and Leo Burnett Toronto. In his time at those agencies, Barrett worked on a laundry list of big name brands, including Kraft, Budweiser, Hudson’s Bay and Mini.
Barrett will now oversee planning for all Havas clients in Canada, with a special focus on Hersey Canada, which is one of the agency’s biggest accounts.
Barrett’s selection was announced along with a slew of other hires, including three creatives in Toronto – senior writer Deric Moore and associate creative directors Peter Gomes and Dave Pigeon. Notably, Pigeon was shortlisted in the Film competition at Cannes this year for Union’s self-promotional video.
Sarah Jue also joined the agency’s Toronto office to head up the Hersey account as vice-president, group account director, while Justin Hewitt joined as creative resources manager.
In Montreal, Caroline Joassin-Bruneau joined the agency as senior writer, and Alexandra Damiani as a senior digital planner and content strategist.
Pak said the hires are driven partially by new business wins, including the Jean Coutu Pharmacy account in Quebec and an assignment from BrandSource Canada. She said the agency has also increased its billings on current accounts.
Havas has been undergoing something of a transformation in Canada since its substantial shift in leadership late last year. Last December Bill Sharpe stepped down as CEO of Havas Worldwide Toronto – a move that coincided with the folding of all the company’s Canadian divisions into Havas Worldwide Canada.
Ann Bouthillier, previously the CEO of the agency’s Palm + Havas arm, then took on the role of CEO of Havas’ Canadian operations and selected Pak, previously a global creative strategist at Facebook Canada, as COO.
According to Pak, the momentum the agency is now experiencing – including its string of hires – is directly linked to confidence in the Canadian operations from its global parent company, Havas Worldwide.
“All these hires reinforce what Andrew Benett, our global CEO, has mandated to us, which is: make Canada as important as any other office in the network,” Pak said. “It really does showcase the added investment in Canada and the importance Havas sees in Canada.”
