Sid Lee has named new presidents for each of its Canadian offices: Geneviève Boulanger in Montreal, and Zemina Moosa in Toronto.
The promotions will enable Sid Lee Canada CEO Martin Gauthier to step back from day-to-day operations to spend more time on growth and M&A strategies.
The agency is calling this a “pivotal moment” in its history, as it starts to replace a leadership group that for the most part has been comprised of founders or long-tenured staff.
While Boulanger and Moosa have been Sid Lee for six and four years respectively, Bertrand Cesvet, Vito Piazza, and Eve Remillard-Larose, who previously led the Toronto office, have all left the agency in recent years (Sid Lee founder Philippe Meunier remains global CEO.)
Gauthier, who was previously president in Montreal, was named CEO for Canada in mid-2022 and has been working to both build stronger connections between the Montreal and Toronto offices, while also developing a new group of leaders.
"I have been impressed by their innate leadership qualities and unwavering dedication to our agency's success," said Gauthier of Boulanger and Moosa, in a release. "Their ability to drive engagement, innovation, and their exceptional track records in client management makes them catalysts for propelling Sid Lee to new heights."
“I do laugh when everyone says ‘next generation,’ because that's suggesting we’re still young and we're really not, but nonetheless,” said Moosa with a laugh. “My mandate, though, definitely is also to think about what that next generation truly is. Who our next leaders are, really building out that team.” Other leadership changes and announcements are still in the works, she added.
"[Moosa’s] extensive involvement with clients, and active participation in new business pitches have been instrumental in securing several exciting wins for our Toronto team, poised for announcement in the coming months,” said Gauthier.
One of those wins was Swedish fintech brand Klarna. Moosa was speaking to Campaign from New York where she was meeting with the new client. Sid Lee won the business late last year and is leading it from the Toronto office. “We're working on a massive global platform,” said Moosa.
Along with leadership planning and development, Sid Lee has also been focused on repositioning itself for a post-covid landscape that looks and feels very different, both for the agency and the industry itself, said Moosa. That has meant working more collaboratively across its offices—Montreal, Toronto, New York, L.A., Seattle, Paris, and London.
“The value we can add to our U.S.-based clients is by staffing them through our network,” said Moosa. “We're able to get really, really talented people in Canada working on these amazing brands in the US.”
Another larger shift that began before the pandemic has been the growing interest by clients to take more work in-house, especially lower funnel creative, while asking ad agency partners to focus on higher-level brand work.
“A lot of advertising agencies saw that as a threat. We've actually just leaned into it,” said Moosa. “We're finding that best relationships and absolutely the best work we're doing is with clients who are all ex-agency who have internal agency teams.”
In terms of the daily operations at the Toronto office, Moosa said not much should change, since she has effectively been doing the job for several months. Decision making will be quicker and more efficient, and she wants to raise the profile for the agency in Canada’s largest market.
While Sid Lee Toronto opened almost 14 years ago, and has roughly 100 employees, Moosa describes it as “a strong silent group,” and part of her mandate is to start making a little more noise in the market.
Boulanger, meanwhile, joined Sid Lee as a group account director in 2018 and been acting president since Gauthier’s promotion in 2022. "Geneviève's an expert in the Québec and Canadian markets,” said Gauthier. “She has exemplified dedication to excellence throughout her tenure, she’s willing to cover a lot of ground and rally a wide range of interests. "Her appointment as president of our Montreal office is a testament to her leadership abilities and her understanding of our agency's ethos."
