Rosanne Caron
ROSANNE CARON was appointed president of the Canadian Out-of-home Measurement Bureau (COMB) and will take over the organization from retiring president Karen Best in January 2015. Caron has been president of the Out-of-home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) since 2005, and will continue in that role, leading both organizations. Before joining OMAC Caron held senior roles at Canwest, Charity.ca, Canoe and NADbank. She was also involved in developing the first computerized reach and frequency model for outdoor advertising. Best leaves COMB after five years, having led the organization through an operational transformation and growing its membership to 19 OOH media companies and 40 ad agencies.
Public promoted IRA BAPTISTE to managing director, from her previous role as director of finance and operations. Baptiste joined the agency in 2011 from Cossette, where she was a VP. Before that she managed internal communications for Vodaphone UK. Public also brought on a new chief creative officer, PAT PIRISI. Pirisi has a long history in creative direction, having held a CD role at DraftFCB, Publicis Toronto, TBWA/Chiat Day and JWT. Joining Pirisi as associate creative director is GREG GRAY, coming from a similar role at FCB and before that at Naked Creative. Rounding out the new creative team are SIMON NEWMAN as senior art director and NATALIE MATHERS as art director. On the sales side, PAULA SWIRLA became director of client services, having previously led client services teams for Naked Creative and DraftFCB. Public also built out its social innovation lab, hiring a new managing director, LEIGH MERLO. Merlo brings a background in business strategy from finance institutions like National Bank, CIBC World Markets and Greenwhich Capital. Working with Merlo is STEFANO CERONE as associate director and JAY ROSENTHAL as program leader.
Harbinger Communications brought on JENNIFER LOMAX as VP strategic planning, a newly created role focused on consumer insight, planning activities and brand purpose engagements. Lomax was previously a consultant at Satov Consultants (formerly Torque Consulting Group) and before that was an associate brand manager at Johnson & Johnson. In 2013 she was named one of Marketing‘s 30 Under 30. LAUREN RIVIETZ was promoted to director of influencer marketing from client service manager, and will develop and implement brand integrations, niche events and media relations. Harbinger also strengthened its research and consumer insights team with NELSON DE LOS SANTOS as manager, digital and social insights and JASON YANG as marketing analyst. SIERRA KOITSES was hired as account coordinator and STEPHANIE BATEMAN was promoted to client service manager.
Kaiser Lachance Communications hired investor relations and corporate communications expert LINDA ARMSTRONG as a director. Armstrong comes from Wharton Strategy, a boutique firm specializing in investor relations, and was previously director of investor relations and corporate communications at Yamana Gold and North American Palladium. She is a director on the Ontario board of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute. At Kaiser Lachance she will implement corporate and investor relations mandates for existing clients and grow the firm’s investor relationspractice group.
Sean Atkinson and Shawn James
Zulu Alpha Kilo added two new associate creative directors, SEAN ATKINSON and SHAWN JAMES, and a design director, OMAR MORSON. “The two Seans” previously worked together at BBDO; before that Atkinson was at Cossette and James was at Taxi. Since joining ZAK in March, they’ve worked on campaigns for Audi and Interac. Morson’s past work experience includes stints at Anomaly, Oxygen, Cundari and Interbrand.
Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong airline, brought on MAUREEN KAM in the new role of director of sales and marketing for Canada, where she will be responsible for all Canadian sales strategies and marketing communications. Kam joins from Avis Budget Group, where she was manager of global partnerships and travel, and was previously manager of global partnerships for Air Canada Cargo.
Former Ontario MPP PETER SHURMAN joined newly established corporate communications consulting firm New View Communications as senior associate. Before his six-year term as MPP, which began in 2007, Shurman was a host on Newstalk 1010 and prior to that was president and CEO of Ultramedia, a broadcast and communications operations consulting firm.
