Toronto Star expands its editorial leadership

Three new managing editors and an executive editor have been enlisted to shape coverage at The Toronto Star.

Grant Ellis has been hired as managing editor for the Star’s digital and multimedia products. Ellis was most recently general manager at Bell’s BNN Bloomberg, and has also been managing editor of The Financial Post.

Nicole MacIntyre joins the Star as managing editor, news, coming off a stint as deputy national editor at The Globe & Mail.

Jordan Himelfarb has also been promoted to be the Star’s managing editor for politics. Himelfarb has spent three years as the paper’s politics editor, overseeing coverage in Ottawa, Queen’s Park and Washington, D.C., and is now leading coverage of the upcoming federal election.

Rounding out the appointments is new executive features editor Sarmishta Subramanian, bringing senior experience from Saturday Night, The Walrus, Maclean’s, Chatelaine and The National Post to her work leading the Star’s long-form and investigative work.

All four report to Anne Marie Owens, who joined the Star as editor-in-chief in April.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to raise the journalistic bar dramatically in the months and years to come and, as a result, have a positive impact on our communities and broader Canadian society at a pivotal time,” Owens said in a statement. “The combined and complementary skills of our senior team will go a long way toward allowing us to fulfill that mission.”

Wavemaker continues to grow North American leadership

GroupM’s Wavemaker has hired Sharb Farjami as chief operating officer for North America.

In a new role at the agency network, Farjami has been tasked with overseeing Wavemaker’s North American activities and new business, reporting to Louisa Wong, CEO of Wavemaker’s Americas region. His hiring represents further growth for the agency’s North America-level leadership team, having hired Delphine Fabre-Hernoux as chief data and analytics officer and Alex Norman as chief growth officer in the spring.

This is Farjami’s return to GroupM, having previously held c-suite roles at Mindshare Australia. Since then, he has been chief commercial officer at News Corp and, most recently, CEO of the company’s social agency Storyful.

Zeno adds to its digital media team

PR firm Zeno Group is growing its paid media practice in Canada, hiring Shaneel Anjum as digital account director.

In her new role, Anjum will play a role in expanding Zeno’s media buying, SEO, digital strategy and analytics practices. She joins after nearly two years handling similar digital-focused duties at 1Milk2Sugars, and also brings experience from AN Commerce and Telus.