Ron Lund, who has been one of Canada’s most influential industry leaders for nearly three decades, is retiring from the Association of Canadian Advertisers at the end of the month.
No successor was announced, but former CIBC marketing VP Esther Benzie will work as an “interim advisor” to help with the transition to a new CEO.
“It is with regret but with our very best wishes that we acknowledge Ron’s well-deserved retirement,” said ACA chair Moya Brown in a release. “Ron’s leaving marks the end of an era for ACA, and indeed the industry.
Speaking with Campaign on Thursday, Lund—who first joined the ACA in 1996—said he’s been considering stepping away from the association since before the pandemic.
And while the pandemic disruptions are fading, Lund stayed on hoping to resolve two other major ACA related challenges. “I wanted to see through the marketing to kids file, as well as the ACTRA situation,” he said, referring to Ottawa’s Bill C-252 to ban food and beverage marketing to kids, and the nearly two-year long labour dispute between the ICA and the actors’ union—with the ACA stuck in the middle. “One day I woke up, and I took the proverbial walk in the snow, and I looked in the mirror and ‘You know, these are not going to end this year,” said Lund.
With the two sides dug in on the ACTRA dispute, there’s unlikely to be any kind of movement until the Ontario Labour Relations Board hearings now set for the fall. And with the Senate still reviewing Bill C-252, the resolution and reverberations of the proposed legislation will roll out for some time.
“For both of them, it’s a fairly long road ahead,” he said. “It’s one of those situations where I can make [those issues] my excuse for not retiring, or I can retire. And I chose the latter.”
Asked about the many accomplishments for ACA under his watch—which coincided with a period of unprecedented transformation that saw the arrival of the digital marketing era and the countless changes that seemingly increased with each year since then—Lund pointed to the ongoing efforts to advocate for Canada’s marketers against proposed restrictions and challenges from government, like Bill C-252 and, before that, Bill C-55 in the late ‘90s to stop US media from publishing “split run” magazines.
He also pointed to his work helping to launch three other key industry associations in Canada: the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB), the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada (SMCC) and the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC).
“[O]ne of the things that made my job enjoyable and that I'm going to really miss…is the great people that I've had the good fortune to work with over the years on stuff like that,” he said. “With very few exceptions, self-interest and ego—because there's a lot of different organizations involved—were checked at the door and we got down to a common goal, which was often to build what is really fundamentally a vulnerable and fragile Canadian marketing industry.”
“Ron Lund has played a major role in shaping the advertising industry in Canada,” said Sonia Carreno the president of the IAB. “His passion and commitment to supporting advertisers in the face of mounting regulatory activity has been both impressive and inspiring.
“Ron has been generous with time and energy towards so many industry initiatives like DAAC and Ad Standards. I’ve personally learned a lot from Ron over the years, and wish him a wonderful retirement.”
“It is well-known that Ron and I didn’t always see eye to eye, that’s because we both genuinely give a sh*t about the members we represent,” said the ICA’s Scott Knox, who as the head of the Canada’s top agency association occasionally criticized marketers (and by extension the ACA) on various issues.
“From the moment I arrived he challenged my thinking and sometimes changed my mind. On occasions, maybe the quieter ones, Ron showed his softer side, his real belief in diversity and the value of great people. A unique and dedicated influence in our world, he’ll be missed.”
As for his plans after leaving the ACA, Lund said he hopes to travel more, make more time for reading and his band (“Come see us at the Black Swan on the Danforth in May,” he said), and tackling his wife’s long list of outstanding home projects.
But he’s not looking at this as a complete retirement either. “If somebody has a small project or whatever they want me to work on, I'm certainly open to do that. I certainly have a lot of knowledge of the industry,” he said. “And if it doesn't happen, that's okay too, I can still play in my band.”
