About our Councils, Committees & Working Groups
IAB Canada’s Councils, Committees & Working Groups are an important focus of our structure, and offer unique opportunities for project leadership, knowledge-sharing and networking across various areas of interest or specialization.
IAB Canada Councils 2025
IAB Canada Councils are invite-only meetings to discuss larger industry and regional issues within the online advertising industry. Please note that IAB Canada Councils are closed meetings at this time.
Ad Tech Council
Chair – Sabrina Anand, Index Exchange
Chair – Walder Amaya, Apex Mobile Media
Agency Council
Chair – Fil Lourenco, Dentsu Media
Chair – Jamie Norgarb, Milestone Integrated Marketing
Marketer Council
Chair – Eleanor Bothwell, Intuit
Chair – Marie-Claude Dion, Cirque Du Soleil
Publisher Council
Chair – Sam Bevacqua, La Presse
Chair – Katrina Santos, Bell Media
Atlantic Regional Council
Chair – Ryan Casey, Time+Space Media
Quebec Council
Chair – Doha Skaf, Spark Foundry Canada (Publicis Group)
Western Regional Council
Chair – Dan Saltalamacchia, Dentsu Media
Chair – Naomi Zhao, Glacier Media
IAB Canada Centres of Excellence and Committees 2025
IAB Canada Committees determine best practices and standards, identify research gaps in various channels, and with approval of the Board of Directors, establish the ongoing priorities for IAB Canada.
If you would like to get involved in an IAB Canada Committee, please contact [email protected], and we’ll add you to the appropriate Committee distribution list and send you upcoming meeting invites.
Sight, Sound and Motion Centre of Excellence
Mandate: To support the adoption, promotion and growth of the existing and new opportunities available to reach audiences through Sight, Sound and Motion.
Lead: Karim Kanji, Active International
Audio Committee:
Chair – Heather Gordon, Acast
Connected TV/Streaming Committee:
Chair – Phillippe Kleim, Corus Entertainment
Chair – Wade Kuiken-Rogers, GroupM Nexus, Advanced TV
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Committee:
Chair – Barbara Huggett, Captivate
Chair – Scott Mitchell, Vistar Media
Gaming Committee:
Chair – Jason Williams, Kidoz
Chair – Pascaline Forget, Initiative
Mobile Committee:
Chair – Noel Geer, Connected Interactive
Ad Tech and Execution Centre of Excellence
Mandate: To support the evolving ad tech landscape and provide best-in-class advertising practice awareness, training and standards across the digital advertising ecosystem.
Lead: Kabil Rahaman, Globe Media Group
Ad Operations Committee
Chair – Jennifer Chan, Rogers Sports & Media
Chair – Tracy Stoneman, Village Media
Data Analytics, Measurement & Insights Committee:
Chair – Erin McWhinnie, OMD
Chair – John Shilton, Publicis Canada
Programmatic Trading Committee:
Chair – Will Rizzuto, TELUS
Search Committee:
Chair – Jennifer Melton, Bevy Commerce
Chair – Sam Leung, The Aber Group
Business-to-Business (B2B) Committee:
Chair – Sean McConnell, Linkedin
Chair – Tracy Day, Globe Media Group
Responsible Advertising Centre of Excellence
Mandate: To define and advance principles of ethical, sustainable, and inclusive advertising.
Lead: Julie Kerr, CBC & Radio Canada
A.I (Artificial Intelligence)/Emerging Platforms Committee:
Chair – Brad Mitchell, TD Canada
Chair – Sahil Razdan, Postmedia Network
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) & Multicultural Committee:
Chair – Megha Wadhwani, Sharethrough
Sustainability Committee:
Chair – RJ Pauloski, The Walt Disney Company
Chair – Benoit Skinazi, Sharethrough
Content and Creators Centre of Excellence
Mandate: To address the evolving landscape of content creation and monetization and its impact to the advertising industry.
Branded Content/Social Media Committee:
Chair – Darcy Macneil, Corus Entertainment
Creators Committee:
Chair – Tracy Jones, Omnicom Media Group
Chair – Jeanette Rees, #Paid
Retail Media Centre of Excellence
Mandate: To drive growth and adoption of Retail Media in Canada.
Lead: Melissa Savage, AirMiles
Working Groups
Following are the key areas of focus for 2024 and beyond:
| Working Group | Mandate |
|---|---|
| Age Gating | Understand circumstances/use cases for age-gating today and in the coming years |
| Artificial Intelligence | Explore implications of new privacy laws and social misconceptions on the advancement of technology in this space.Discussion on industry self-regulation and ethics. |
| Canadian Research Consortium | IAB Canada Index development – industry research triangulation across core metrics to provide enhanced data to the Canadian media industry. |
| Cannabis | Provide information and understanding of cannabis legislation as it relates to the digital space. |
| CASL | Lobbying against Private Right of Action and other interpretations of CASL. |
| Cross-Measurement | Staying ahead of industry efforts around cross-media measurement in coordination with the global IAB Tech Lab initiatives working on standards and emerging needs/definitions. |
| Coalition for Better Ads | Ensuring that IAB Canada membership is represented at the onset of standard development |
| Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | To ensure that member organizations are as diverse and as inclusive as the audiences on the digital medium in Canada. |
| Ecommerce | Staying informed on eCommerce and the use of 1st party data for effective digital media investments – Keeping track of the DTC eco-system globally and in Canada. |
| Effective Contextual Marketing (non-behavioral advertising) | Exploring cohort targeting and addressability. |
| Elections | Quick enablement of compliance with Bill C-76 in past and future elections. Assisting Elections Canada in making informed digital media policy decisions (rooted in the reality of the eco-system). Ensuring that the concerns of our industry are heard as potential amendments are determined. |
| Gold Standard Eco-System | Working with global IABs and Canadian advertisers to develop minimum thresholds to achieve acceptable standards in supply chain safety. |
| Domestic Media | Leveling the playing field and developing opportunities for domestic media. |
| Marketing to Kids | Ensure that the voice of the digital advertising industry is represented in lobbying efforts regarding Bill S-228.Provide the Canadian digital media industry with a viable signal-based approach to any age-gating requirement that might arise from M2K regulation. |
| Modernized Digital Media Services | Assisting service providers to help get ahead of opportunities to remain competitive and highly relevant for the digital media sector. Discussions around services required for the rapidly evolving eco-system – including martech integrations and consultancy. |
| iGaming | Provide information, understanding and guidance to all stakeholders participating in the regulated iGaming marketplace. |
| Privacy | Alignment on submissions to OPC and ISED regarding all privacy related matters including federal and provincial privacy legislation. This group also cover CASL and other privacy-related matters. |
| Rearc | Preparing the industry for cookie independence and enabling Canadian representation in discussions around re-imagining the industry in a post-cookie eco-system. |
| Terms & Conditions | Review existing standard terms and conditions.Identify gaps in requirements – i.e. media types, nuances like viewability and other issues. |
| TCF Canada | Provide the Canadian industry a viable, proven privacy compliance framework to address existing and reformed policy in Canada.Creation of TCF privacy string for PIPEDA to help with compliance with current and future legislation. |
NOTE: Your company must be an IAB Canada member to join one of our Councils, Committees or Working Groups. If your company is interested in membership, please fill out our online membership form.