Diamond Hires Peter Ignazi as Chief Creative Officer

Diamond has announced today that it has hired Peter Ignazi, one of Canada’s most acclaimed and respected creative leaders, as its first chief creative officer. 

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, and being named strategy’s agency of the year three times.

“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,” says 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 follows 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,” says 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.”

Recognising that today’s brands are no longer built just through traditional campaigns, Diamond has been steadily building and diversifying in nine main practices, which include digital, design, experiential, partnerships, and influencer marketing.