Vision7 Media has hired Joseph Leon to fill the newly created role of chief digital officer.
Leon, who recently moved to Toronto from London, U.K., had been consulting on digital projects for Cossette Media and Jungle Media (under the Vision7 umbrella) for the past few months. He was a founding member of and formerly European managing director at Essence, a full-service international digital agency with offices in London and New York. Prior to that, Leon spent three years as head of online marketing at Lloyds TSB in London.
“For [Vision7] to deliver value to our clients and navigate what is an incredibly complex and fast-changing world, it just seemed obvious to have a really experienced heavyweight digital leader come in to drive and deliver the agenda for the entire business,” said David Jowett, president of Vision7 Media. “The timing was right and the person was right.”
During his seven years at Essence, Leon built the media practice and was involved in all aspects of digital media, from strategy and planning to real-time bidding, search and analytics. He headed up Expedia’s European digital account and is credited with being instrumental in developing the agency’s long-standing European relationship with Google.
“For me, this was an amazing opportunity to work in a different type of environment in the sense that [Vision7] is a highly integrated, strategic communications group,” said Leon. “Having advised and got to know the team at Vision7, when [given] the opportunity to make it a full-time thing… I jumped on it.”
