Sid Lee has announced three leadership appointments across its North American and global operations.
Yanick Bédard has been named chief AI and transformation officer for Sid Lee Group, Shereen Ladha has been promoted to chief strategy officer for Sid Lee North America and Jean-François Lavigne has been appointed VP of innovation and creative experiences.
According to the agency, the appointments are intended to strengthen its leadership across strategy, innovation and technology.
As chief AI and transformation officer, Bédard will oversee Sid Lee Group’s AI strategy, transformation initiatives and technology integration efforts globally. He previously served as EVP of innovation, digital and strategy and has worked on digital transformation projects for organizations including SAQ, Cirque du Soleil, Rona, STM and Vidéotron.
From left: Yanick Bédard, Shereen Ladha and Jean-François Lavigne/Images courtesy of Sid Lee
Ladha, who joined Sid Lee last summer as head of strategy for North America, will now lead strategic planning across the region. Before joining the agency, she served as VP and creative strategy lead at Hill+Knowlton. Earlier in her career, she was group strategy director at Rethink, where she worked on campaigns including KitKat’s award-winning “Iftar Bar.”
Lavigne, who has been Sid Lee’s creative director and innovation lead, digital design since September 2018, will oversee the agency’s innovation and creative-experience initiatives. In his previous role, he focused on digital experience design, emerging technology and AI-related projects across the organization.
Johan Vakidis said in a news release that the trio’s efforts “bring a distinct way of thinking that will help shape how we evolve our creative offering, integrate AI more meaningfully, and continue building an agency model designed for what’s next.”
