LG2 Group Appoints CBC/Radio-Canada Veteran to Accelerate Business Transformation
Following the launch of agency REF Digital, as well as the acquisitions of Dialekta and Varibase, LG2 Group has named Maxime St-Pierre partner and executive vice president, technology and AI. A move which also sees him take on the role of executive vice president, strategy and innovation at REF, he joins with a mandate to lead consulting and strategy teams, while accelerating AI integration.
Having spent nearly 10 years at CBC/Radio-Canada, where he led digital strategy, deployed digital experiences and products, and oversaw its digital business intelligence unit, Maxime played a key role in the broadcaster’s transformation. According to partner and chief executive officer Claude Auchu, his arrival will be “essential” to the continuation of LG2 Group’s business transformation.
“[Maxime’s] role will not be limited to technology; he will play a pivotal role in the cultural transformation across all our business units,” he explains. “His arrival demonstrates our commitment to building increasingly modern and high-performing brand experiences with our clients, by linking strategy, technology, media, and creativity in all their forms.”
Equally excited is Julie Pilon, partner and president of REF. Recognising her agency – a digital-centred indie specialising in the likes of technological consulting, e-commerce platforms, and application development – is entering a new era, she believes Maxime’s veteran knowledge of digital and media makes him the perfect person for the job.
“With REF, we [have] an established team that has everything it takes to elevate the game in digital and e-commerce. Maxime’s vast knowledge, combined with his experience with international brands, will be a catalyst for growth for us and, more importantly, for our clients.”
For Maxime, this move marks a return to the agency side – having had a prior tenure at Nurun – giving him a chance to fuse his CBC learnings with experiences developing digital strategies and e-commerce platforms for the likes of Sony, Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, and adidas.
“I chose to join LG2 Group because its entrepreneurial project, its ecosystem, and the richness of its expertise are unique,” he says. “To stay at the cutting edge of a rapidly-changing field, we must constantly and collectively challenge ourselves, experiment, and transform. I arrive with the ambition to accelerate the AI transformation and integrate it rigorously into our culture, reflexes, and tools, serving the artisans who will be experimenting with it.”
Accelerating Innovation Capability
Discussing his move with LBB, Maxime reveals he’ll be bringing a human-centric approach to LG2 Group and REF’s clients. Seeking to help them navigate a complex technological moment, he adds that he’s motivated by the agency’s ‘nothing is impossible’ ethos, combined with its positioning of ‘move fast, build to last’.
“I’m aiming to accelerate our innovation capability to have a direct impact on our clients’ business by measuring the increased performance and value generated through AI and digital product solutions,” he continues. “Additionally, I’ll be focusing on our internal transformation through the proficiency and adoption of new AI practices by our people, and their ability to discuss it and integrate it into their daily work.”
To best facilitate this, Maxime emphasises that AI must shift from “project” status to a “cultural mindset and daily tool”. That transition will require the implementation of a meticulous integration system to develop the teams’ critical thinking around its use and potential.
“Regarding internal processes, this means leveraging AI to automate strategic monitoring, the production of information summaries, or the optimisation of workflows to free up human creativity,” he explains. “For clients, for example, it involves deploying AI to create ultra-personalised user journeys on e-commerce platforms, using machine learning to optimise pricing or product recommendations in real-time.”
Despite the scale of this undertaking, the EVP is confident that with the help of his fellow leaders, such an outcome is achievable. Describing the team not just as colleagues, but as a “portfolio of strengths”, he praises the collective talent of LG2 Group, asserting his belief in the philosophy that a leader’s primary team isn’t the people they manage, but the peers they sit with.
“My commitment is to prioritise our cross-functional cohesion, learn from my colleagues and build together,” he adds.
Equally important will be drawing upon key learnings from his time at CBC. An experience he describes as an “exceptional playing field for managing highly-complex and high-traffic digital products”, he notes that the lessons from coordinating the development of multi-platform experiences such as ICI TOU.TV and the Olympic Games will undoubtedly come in handy with the start of this new chapter.
“This expertise is directly transferable to LG2 Group’s need to link strategy, technology, and creativity in all their forms for brands,” Maxime says. “[At CBC] I established the user data practice and implemented AI, a fundamental expertise for driving the acceleration of AI within LG2/REF. I know how to put technology at the service of the user.”
More than this, however, he believes that now is the right time for the Canadian market to receive this kind of offering. Acknowledging that despite great enthusiasm across adland to innovate and work with AI, there’s still a long way to go, Maxime concludes that the most enticing aspect of this new position is the chance to lead industry change – a sentiment he hopes to impart across the board.
“What excites me most is the opportunity to be one of the architects in that transformation in many aspects, such as the intellectual challenge, strategic and innovation capacity, client and cultural impact to help define what the agency will look like for the next decade.”
