Kalin Kotzev has been elevated to head of programmatic and operations at GroupM Canada.

Kotzev who, previously served as director of operations for the agency group for the past two years, has had his role expanded to focus on overseeing the operations and development of GroupM’s programmatic offering, blending the agency group’s ops capabilities with programmatic buying strategy. In the newly created position, he will report to Michael Neale, president of GroupM Digital.

The programmatic team is the central resource for both the internal teams at GroupM’s agencies (Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker and M/Six) as well as all the agencies’ clients who require a disclosed model. The programmatic team will also work with non-agency clients.

Samantha Kops, senior marketing communications manager for GroupM Global, told MiC the move for Kotzev was made to allow GroupM to focus more on taking advantage of advancing tech platforms. “It enables us to be more flexible and prepared to deliver on client priorities,” she said. By having a single view of operations and media, she said, the team will be able to work more closely with its media partners.

Prior to joining GroupM, Kotzev held various operations and account management positions during a six-and-a-half year stint in Toronto with search marketing specialist Catalyst Canada.

GroupM Canada is currently hiring on its programmatic team. This summer, GroupM has staffed up its senior leadership for its Canadian outpost. It added Heather Baily as its first country-level CFO and named Sebastian Rennie as its new chief investment officer.