Montreal media agency Touché! PHD has named former vice-president, media director Karine Courtemanche as its president. She replaces agency founder Alain Desormiers, who has moved up to CEO.
Courtemanche arrived at Touché in 2003 and has been a key contributor to the agency’s growth and its “sterling” reputation within the industry, said Desormiers. Touché–part of the Omnicom Media Group network–now employs 50 people and boasts a client list that includes Gaz Métro, Sleeman and Cirque de Soleil.
Desormiers, who founded Touché in 1995 (it was acquired by Omnicom in 2004), said that Courtemanche’s appointment is the first step towards laying the groundwork for the agency’s next decade.
“I have had both hands on the steering wheel for 15 years now, and although I’m still extremely excited by the media arena, I really felt I needed to make a move for the next 15 years,” he said.
Desormiers, 48, will continue to be actively involved in Touché’s day-to-day operations, and will be particularly active in areas like business development, he said.
Courtemanche will deliver on the agency’s core mission to provide superb client service said Desormiers. “She is so much what I think a leader of a media agency should be, because of the way she approaches things and the way she feels about the new aspects of our business,” he said. “We talk a lot about where the industry is going, and she’s got the kind of leadership style that I thought was the right one for the future.”
Before joining Touché!, Courtemanche spent four years as a media planner at Montreal’s Palm Communications and two years as a planner at Marketel.
“I’m both deeply touched and tremendously motivated by this new challenge which I’ve been offered by the management and one of the most impressive teams of media professionals in Canada,” said Courtemanche in the release. “I’m convinced that my colleagues and I will be able to keep Touché! PHD on the path of continued growth and progress that its leaders have plotted and enjoyed up until now.”
Touché has been on a roll from both a new business and creativity perspective for the past couple of years. Its new business wins in 2009 included VIA Rail and Hydro-Québec. In March it won a Grand Prix at the Internationalist’s 2009 Awards for Innovation in Media for its “Abrupt Endings” campaign for the Suicide Action Foundation (the campaign was also shortlisted at the 2010 Festival of Media in Valencia, Spain).
