Fauve Doucet upped at GroupM

After a little over a year at GroupM, industry veteran Fauve Doucet (pictured) has been upped to a broader role. Initially hired on by the agency last May as VP of strategy and innovation for GroupM’s [m]Platform, heading up development and commercialization of GroupM’s various tech products. Now, Doucet holds the position of VP of strategy and innovation for GroupM, beyond just the [m]Platform focus. Doucet has been in the marketing industry for more than a decade, having previously worked with OMD and Wavemaker. During her time at OMD, she was named to Marketing‘s coveted “30 Under 30″ list.

Horizon adds three

Horizon Media Canada has added three new director-level roles as the agency’s Toronto outpost expands. Felicia Postorino, previously with Starcom, joined earlier this month as associate director of brand strategy. She will report to brand strategy VP Mike Mills. Also joining the team from the Publicis family is finance manager David Bachusky, who worked with Publicis Media. Going forward, he will report to Horizon Canada’s EVP and GM Kevin Kivi. In July, the agency also hired brand strategy director David Mear, who reports to brand strategy SVP Jessica Chambers. He joined the agency from GroupM’s Excelerator Media. In a statement to MiC, Kivi called 2019 “a year of extraordinary growth” for Horizon, resulting in big opportunities for growth and change.

Starcom brings U.S. talent north

David Avalon has recently put down roots in Canada, moving to Starcom from Spark Foundry in the U.S. In his new role at Starcom, Avalon will run the Unison agency (which combines talent from Starcom, Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Sapient for work on the TD account). During his time at Spark Foundry in the U.S., Avalon was part of the leadership on the agency’s Comcast business.

Havas staffs up accounts, digital teams

Four new faces have joined Havas Canada. Rick Kusch, who previously managed accounts and planned media with Quantcast, UM, MEC and OMD, is now an account director with Havas. Steven Gural, formerly a media planning coordinator with Corus, is now a media planner for the agency. On the digital side, Krutika Khadse has joined as a digital coordinator, while Adriana Gonzalez is a newly minted senior digital specialist.

Crucial Interactive bolsters the Contobox team

After a flurry of activity, Toronto-based adtech company Crucial Interactive has added to its Contobox team, as well as the RED Contobox team which works with Rogers Media. Ramon Rey has joined the RED team in Toronto as digital coordinator, focusing on supporting the Rogers partnership and facilitating both pre- and post-sales processes. Also new to the Contobox team are front- and back-end developers Teon Mehta, Mansur Kurbonov and Svitlana Melnyk, who will help increase Contobox’s ad unit development.

The company has also promoted from within. Julia Wera has been promoted to Contobox’s first ever creative director role. Erin Brodie will now perform the role of client lead, supporting reseller partners including Rouge Media and Hatch64, and will take on responsibility for inbound inventory requests for ESPN, TMX and more. Jason Cristiani has been promoted to manager of the ad operations team, supervising campaigns. And, on the admin side, Carole Shim has been upped to an accounting manager.