Helen Pak has been named the head of Havas Worldwide Canada. On Thursday the agency announced that Pak will succeed Ann Bouthillier as the CEO of the agency’s Canadian operations, effective immediately.
Bouthillier has decided to move on after 25 years with the agency, first serving as president and CEO of its former Montreal arm, Palm + Havas, then as CEO of Havas Worldwide Canada.
As one of her first orders of business as CEO, Bouthillier named Pak chief creative officer and president of the agency last December. Since then, Havas has been on a hiring spree, rounding out its executive ranks and integrating its Montreal and Toronto offices.
Bouthillier told Marketing the agency has made great strides on both of those efforts. With the agency in good financial standing, she feels confident handing over the reigns to Pak.
“I’m really happy that we found her,” Bouthillier said of Pak. “Havas has a fantastic and unique person with Helen. She shares the same values as I do and Havas [does]. When we announced the new leadership in December, I felt like we had a good person in place and I feel very confident in Helen taking over.”
Pak, who is a veteran creative, will maintain her responsibilities as chief creative officer moving forward. Prior to joining Havas, Pak was a creative strategist at Facebook and worked in a global role on the social network’s “Creative Shop.” She was also executive vice-president of Saatchi & Saatchi.
The agency is also looking for a leader for its Montreal office and will retain Bouthillier as a consultant through the transition.
Speaking of Bouthillier’s departure Pak said, “She leaves an incredible legacy being with Palm and the Havas family for 25 years. With seven years under her leadership, the growth and development of Montreal flourished. She not only increased revenue, but also brought on national clients – and won a ton of awards nationally and internationally.”
“Obviously I’m sad to see Ann go,” Pak continued. “She hired me to come on and I’ll continue the mission of creating this very strong national, integrated agency. I’m thrilled with the challenge. It’s a very exciting time for us. Since we integrated nationally in December [of 2014], we continue to try to provide best in class innovation to our clients and we’re investing heavily in Canada.”
