Diamond has hired Peter Ignazi as its first chief creative officer.
A high-profile creative leader in Canada, Ignazi was most recently at Cossette where he spent seven years before departing as global CCO in February. Prior to that, he spent nine years with BBDO Canada.
Under his direction, Cossette was among Canada’s leading creative agencies, winning top prizes at both domestic and international awards shows for clients including SickKids Foundation, McDonald’s Canada, and General Mills.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the inherent, almost effortless creativity of true entrepreneurs. They don’t just find innovative solutions to challenges—they actively search out opportunities where none seem to exist,” said Ignazi. “Diamond was born out of this operating system and live it daily for their clients. My goal here is to help broaden, and hopefully raise the creative aspect of this entrepreneurialism to new levels.”
Ignazi’s hire comes after a strong year of growth for Diamond that has seen it add several key new clients including theScore Bet, Accor Hotels, and the Ontario Tourism digital assignment, while also bolstering its creative department with a series of new additions.
“I’ve seen Peter Ignazi in action for years and admired his creative leadership,” says president David Diamond. “We are an agency who has always been relentlessly focused on solving our client’s biggest challenges; with Peter at the helm, we can now provide them access to the best creative talent in the world.”
Ignazi’s hire follows several other senior creative appointments, including creative directors Jordan Cohen and Mark Holden, and will build upon the ongoing leadership of SVP, creative director Dave Stevenson. Diamond has grown to 120 employees across offices in Toronto and New York.
“Dave Stevenson has done an incredible job leading our creative group to this point,” said Diamond. “He’s been a key contributor to the agency over the past number of years and will continue to be for many more to come. With Peter, we are adding creative firepower that few agencies have, firepower that will bolster our already strong and diversified teams executing across the entire marketing funnel.”
Civil rights groups call on major corporations to stick with DEI programs
A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.
An open letter signed by 19 organizations and directed at the leaders of Fortune 1000 companies said companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders.
The civil rights groups included the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they're broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees," their statement read. "But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs."
Companies such as Ford, Lowes, John Deere, Molson Coors and Harley-Davidson recently announced they would pull back on their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after facing pressure from conservative activists who were emboldened by recent victories in the courtroom.
Many major corporations have been examining their diversity programs in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional. Dozens of cases have been filed making similar arguments about employers. Critics of DEI programs say the initiatives provide benefits to people of one race or sexual orientation while excluding others.
In their letter, the civil rights organizations, which also included... Read More