Tyler Turnbull has been named head of Proximity Canada, filling the position vacated by Dave Lafond.
On Wednesday the agency announced Turnbull, previously senior vice-president of strategy and insight, will assume the role effective immediately. In September, Lafond left Proximity to take a position as head of Cosette’s English operations.
Gerry Frascione, chairman and CEO of Proximity Canada and parent company BBDO Canada, said in a release, “At Proximity Canada our focus is on creating intelligent and valuable digital experiences for our clients and their customers. Our strategy is clear – as the industry continues to transform, we must leverage technology, data, and creativity to reshape the solutions clients will demand in the future.”
“To accelerate this strategy we have named Tyler president of Proximity Canada and made numerous strategic leadership hires.”
As senior vice-president, Turnbull worked on some of the agency’s largest accounts including, Rogers, Spinmaster and Campbell’s and led the strategy on Visa’s digitally-driven spring Smallenfreuden campaign.
The appointment comes amidst a series of staffing changes at Proximity Canada. Last month creative director Josh Stein left the agency to join Tribal DDB. Rick Jacobs also recently exited Proximity to join Draftfcb and Jeff Vermeersch left the agency in September to join Zulu Alpha Kilo as creative technology director.
“We wish our alumni all the best,” Turnbull added in an email to Marketing. “From here, I’m excited to work with our new leadership team to do what Proximity does best – merging data and creative to build the experiences and platforms our clients are looking for.”
The agency has also done some senior level hires this year, selecting Jon Finkelstein as senior vice-president and executive creative director in April, and Jeffrey So as director of analytics and Rosie Gentile as vice-president of integrated strategy and insights before that.
Prior to joining Proximity, Turnbull worked as a digital strategist at Publicis Modem in Toronto and a planning director at Publicis Modem in London, U.K. In 2012, he was selected as one of Marketing‘s Top 30 Under 30.
