Google has picked Matt Thornton to be its new head of agency and partners, who will also unify resources meant for different agencies under a single organization.

Thornton takes over from director of strategy and product acceleration Matt Rivard, who filled the role on an interim basis after former head of agency Christos Nikitopoulos left the company for The Trade Desk late last year.

Most recently managing director for the Google Marketing Platform in Canada, Thornton joined the company in 2012 to begin building Google’s Canadian advertising technology business in Toronto and Montreal. Prior to Google, he held positions at Shaw Media, Yahoo! Canada and DoubleClick.

In his new post, Thornton will lead Google’s agency team, which provides support to agencies in activating campaigns through the company’s ad products. He will also spearhead the unification of programmatic, creative, media and tech resources under a single organization.

“We’re doubling down on our support for Canadian agencies, bringing media, data and tech closer together in our agency support model,” Thornton said. “We look forward to providing more value to help our agency partners future proof their service offering in this increasingly complex and exciting era.”