Joseph Leon is the new president of Vision7 Media.
The company announced Leon as its new leader on Thursday in Cannes, where its executive team is attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Leon is taking the place of David Jowett, who left the company in May to return to his native U.K. After a global search for a replacement, the company decided to hire from within, promoting Leon from his position as chief digital officer.
In a call from Cannes, he told Marketing that, while he now goes about building his leadership team, his predecessor had laid the groundwork for his future success.
“David left us with very, very strong foundations,” Leon said. “We have a unique and differentiated leadership team that’s come in over the past couple of years, and those foundations have helped drive a transformation in our business.”
“I’m incredibly excited, because I get to guide us through this next chapter of our growth on top of those strong foundations.”
Prior to joining Vision7, Leon was a founding member and European managing director for the digital agency Essence, where he oversaw delivery across all clients, including Google, Expedia and eBay.
“We did a thorough global search for a new Vision7 Media president and Joseph came out of this process clearly on top,” Vision7 international CEO Brett Marchand said in a statement. “In addition to helping transform our media operation into a significant digital force, Joseph has also been a key factor in a number of important media new business wins over the past two years.”
Leon was integral to Jungle Media landing Capital One as a client as well as Cossette Media winning General Mills as a full AOR assignment. He was also involved in the successful pitches for the Kobo, Whirlpool and National Bank businesses.
According to Leon, the company has already started looking for ways to fill the gap he’s leaving as chief digital officer. However, he said Vision7 is looking at a number of options for adding new senior leaders rather than simply filling his vacated role.
