Cossette has announced a major new hire, with former Union founder and president Subtej Nijjar joining as chief strategy officer, responsible for leading strategy across its Toronto and Vancouver offices.
Cat Wiles was chief strategy officer at Cossette, until October when she returned to her native U.K. to become the first-ever CSO of Lucky Generals after three years with Cossette.
Nijjar has had a varied 20-year career that includes roles in planning, as well as cultural and business lead, president, and CMO. He has worked on strategy for an array of blue-chip brands including Domino’s, IKEA, Best Buy, Molson Coors, Unilever and American Express.
“I’m excited to get back to what I truly love, which is working with creatives, collaborating with clients, and obsessing about the work that goes out the door every day,” said Nijjar in a release. “Cossette has the size, scale, global talent and client roster for me to really dive in alongside a brilliant team and make an impact.”
Nijjar was most recently CMO for Shiftsmart, a labour enterprise that connects companies with freelance workers, helping grow its customer base to two million. Prior to that, he worked with the crypto trading company Coinberry.
He founded Union in 2012, growing it to 60 people before departing for a role as president of Mosaic North America in 2020. At the time, he called creating Union “one of the greatest things I’ve accomplished in life.” Last year, Union’s parent company Stagwell merged the agency with data specialist 6Degrees to bring the Doner name back to Canada after more than a decade away, as DonerNorth.
“With Sub we’ve found an incredibly optimistic and versatile strategic leader who is going to help us unlock the next chapter of Cossette’s innovation, growth and creativity,” said Daniel Shearer, president, Ontario and West, at Cossette. “He understands the business from multiple perspectives, and has an impressive track record of combining culture, creativity and technology to create truly transformative solutions for our client partners. We’re really excited to have him on board.”
