Huge is getting bigger in Canada.
The IPG agency’s Toronto office has grown to 100 employees in the 2.5 years since it opened, and today it announced the hires of two new leaders: general manager Emily Bond and group director of creative Vassilios “Vass” Alexiou.
The two come from very different backgrounds: she was MD of SapientRazorfish Toronto while he was head of experience design for classic British retail brand Marks and Spencer. Alexiou also held the experience director/creative partner title at BBH London, where he worked exclusively on the Walgreens Boots Alliance account.
These announcements follow the February hiring of ECD Matt Hexemer, who helped launch the office’s physical design or “analog” practice.
“As we continue to build on the success from our first two and a half years in the Canadian market, the additions of Emily and Vass will help us dramatically scale and redefine what is possible for brands,” said Huge Canada managing director Paul Burns. “While Emily will help us strengthen our operational capabilities through her ability to provide strategic guidance to both Canadian and global clients, Vass will leverage his expertise in design-driven business transformation and user-centric design to help our creative work thrive.”
Bond cited the agency’s reputation for “encourag[ing] entrepreneurship, push[ing] the boundaries of user behavior and offer[ing] end-to-end solutions for the most ambitious brands in the world” in discussing the new position, while Alexiou said, “Huge starts with the user and likes to tackle business, brand and customer challenges at the same time. I like wearing many hats, so I am naturally attracted to this approach.”
Huge Toronto’s clients currently include Canada Goose, Four Seasons, Nike and Google, among others.