Wieden+Kennedy Appoints First President of Toronto Office

Wieden+Kennedy has made a splash in Canada with the announcement that Jared Stein will be joining on as president of the Toronto office. 

A move which cements W+K’s presence in the Canadian market, the former president and CEO of The Hive will be starting on January 1st 2025. He will report to Neal Arthur, global CEO of W+K.

“Building a creative culture is what I was put on this earth to do,” said Jared. “To me, the most important part of a job like this is helping to bring the culture of the place into the Canadian market, and the culture of the market into the agency. W+K recognised the importance of building an office with local talent. And as Canadian brands are becoming more global, driving that message from here is important. I’m excited to help build the next chapter of W+K in Toronto.”

As part of this, Jared will be working in service of W+K’s Ford and McDonald’s accounts, collaborating with the brands’ global managing directors Mike Welch and Brandon Pracht (respectively) to facilitate the success of those teams based in the Toronto office.

Equally so, the new president will be looking internally with a focus on growth, both from a creative opportunity standpoint, but also a people/culture perspective. Tasked with upholding the W+K mentality that the culture of each office is made of three parts (the W+K DNA, the city it’s in, and the people/perspectives therein), his appointment represents a strong desire to bring regional culture to the office, and vice versa. 

“Toronto has a culture of strong creative indies that we have a ton of respect for,” said Neal Arthur. “And Jared really gets the type of environment we try to foster at W+K – one with creativity and independence at the centre. We’re excited to have him joining our crew, and have no doubt we’ll feel at home in Canada.”

Jared is one of two significant recent hires for W+K in Toronto. Elliott Altilia has joined from Sid Lee as group strategy director on Ford and McDonald’s.