Stephanie Nerlich is leaving Grey Canada to become chief marketing officer and managing director for MDC Partners in Canada, effective April 4.
In a release announcing the move, MDC said the newly expanded role would see Nerlich focused on new business development and aligning “client needs with respective partner agency core expertise.” Terence Donnelly had been CMO for Canada until late last year.
Patrick Scissons
Nerlich has been president and CEO of Grey Canada for the last five years, a period that saw the agency re-establish a reputation as a creative leader in the Canadian market and, according to the agency, double its revenue. Aside from winning new business from Post Foods USA, HSBC North America, Procter & Gamble, Brown-Forman, ATCO and Volvo, Grey—under chief creative officer Patrick Scissons who Nerlich hired a few months after taking the job at Grey—won 14 Lions in Cannes as well as hardware from D&AD, The One Show, The Effies as well as consistently strong showings at the Marketing Awards and other Canadian shows.
Taking Nerlich’s place at Grey will be Darlene Remlinger, promoted to president of Grey Toronto from senior vice-president and managing director. She’ll share duties with Scissons who stays on as chief creative officer.
“We are fortunate to have a deep bench of talent in Toronto,” Michael Houston, global president of Grey, said in a release issued Monday morning. “Darlene and Patrick are proven leaders who will provide the creativity, energy and counsel our clients expect and deserve.”
Grey also promoted Leah Power to chief operating officer of Grey Canada from vice-president of finance, while Neil McPhedran remains general manager of the Vancouver office.
“I am incredibly proud of the success we have had at Grey over the last five years,” said Nerlich. “But joining MDC will give me the opportunity to work across 13 agency brands all with amazing strengths. MDC is one of the fastest growing agency networks in the world and its unique partnership model is something I couldn’t pass up.”
MDC has long prided itself on investing in agencies rather than buying them outright. And, despite the high-profile resignation of MDC founder and CEO Miles Nadal amid an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last summer, the network had a strong year in 2015 with revenue up 8.4% and is still home to a number of the industry’s top creative brands worldwide including 72andSunny, Anomaly and CP+B. Here in Canada, MDC brands include Anomaly, KBS, 6degrees, Boom Marketing, Bruce Mao Design, Union and Veritas.
Darlene Remlinger
Before joining Grey in 2011, Nerlich was president and CEO of Lowe Roche for nearly three years and spent more than 10 years before that at BBDO where she left as senior vice-president and executive managing director.
“Stephanie has achieved the highest levels of success in our industry by taking the helm of an esteemed group of agencies and accelerating them to win an enviable list of clients while creating award-winning work,” said Bob Kantor, chief marketing and business development officer, in the release. Nerlich will report to Kantor and Andre Coste, executive vice-president and chief operating officer.
