Lori Davison Joins Diamond as Chief Strategy Officer

North American creative communications agency Diamond is growing its leadership team by hiring Lori Davison five months after acclaimed CCO Peter Ignazi has also joined the agency creating an impressive strategy and creative dynamic duo.

Lori Davison is a recognised strategic leader in the North American brand and advertising industry. Lori has spent her career unlocking the market potential of large, dynamic brands like RBC, TD Bank and SickKids. Most recently, Lori served as chief marketing and communications officer for the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Prior to ROM, Lori served as head of brand strategy at SickKids Foundation where she led the visioning and development of the groundbreaking SickKidsVS brand platform, which has become a global example of best practice for the healthcare sector and succeeded in driving $1.5 Billion in fundraising revenue during her tenure. She is a known champion of compelling creative ideas with work awarded in every major international advertising show, including a career total of 20 Cannes Lions and 42 shortlists among which is Canada’s first Black Lion for Advertising Effectiveness as well as 2 shortlists for Grand Prix Lions.

Lori was named Canada’s 2017 Marketer of the Year by the Canadian Marketing Association, and 2018 Top Marketer of the Year by Strategy Magazine.

“Having spent the last decade activating brand strategies client-side, I’m excited to bring what I think will be a uniquely effective lens to the CSO role inside an agency," says Davison. “Both agency-side and client-side, my energy and skills have always been focussed on elevating creative strategy to drive impact."

Diamond continues to attract top talent as the agency onboards new clients, such as Accor Hotels North America, Ontario Tourism plus a few others to be named shortly and growth from their existing client roster of TD, Tim Hortons, Skip The Dishes, The Score.

“I’ve worked with Diamond as a client and as an agency partner on a few occasions and I can attest - this agency is truly exceptional at creating memorable brand experiences of all kinds. No one is better. And frankly, that’s the arena of brand/consumer connection that I’ve become most excited about.

"Traditional advertising has a really hard time finding its way with the consumer in our digital environment, but when an agency thinks in terms of brand experiences they can create scale and impact. Those are the kinds of brand strategies I am interested in developing.

"I’m thrilled to partner once again with Peter Ignazi. He has been the creative force behind some of the work I am most proud of in my career to date, including for FedEx, RBC and SickKids. I believe the combination of mine and Peter’s traditional AOR experience driving transformative creative strategies for big brands, mixed with the innovative, non-traditional, entrepreneurial DNA of Diamond is going to make for a really interesting alchemy."

“Lori is a dream hire for the agency” says David Diamond. “When you think about people in the industry that you want to be working with, Lori is at the top of that list. We’ve always maintained that our mission is to drive as much value to our clients as possible. With Lori, Peter and some of the other great talents we’ve added recently, Diamond is the place I'd want leading my business if I was a client.”