Leadership Team

Bringing great people and great ideas together. Making it happen. It’s what gets Sylvain out of bed every day. And he’s been doing it for over 25 years now, making Circle 6 one of the most innovative and productive shops of its kind. In many ways the ‘reality check’ of Circle 6, Sylvain has always had a special gift for keeping everyone on track and accountable at all times.

Starting out with K-OS in the 90s, Sylvain was one of the pioneers of web commercialization. Over time, he developed a unique ability for optimizing business process without sacrificing customer value — putting fundamentals and factuality before hype and emotion-based decision making. His tenure at Edelman met with equal success, and he grew its Canadian operations from a handful of employees to a workforce of more than 40. An unparalleled performance he replicated at Sonic Boom. And continues to do so today at Union.

Customer obsession, problem solving, accountability — they’ve always been connected for Richard. And at any given point in time he can be found filling up a whiteboard with novel solutions to complex and intractable client problems. One of Union’s co-founders, Richard is one of the originals, a true digital native pioneering web development and e-commerce in the 90s. And was a primary architect behind the first customer experiences of many of Canada’s leading retailers.

With a unique approach honed at upstart innovators like iPerceptions and Tungle — as well as established service giants like Publicis and NATIONAL — Richard has always been true to data-driven accountability. Which for him means staying accountable to team members, customer expectations, the experiences of end users, and sometimes staying up late to make it all happen. With global leaders like Ford, CBS, The New York Times, and Google in his portfolio, Richard is the go-to for when it comes to solving complex customer problems.

First, solve the problem. Then, write the code. If there’s anything Max would put on a tattoo, it would be this quote from legendary developer, John Johnson. With over 20 years experience in technology — leading countless successful projects for GE, Molson, Health Canada, and Ford to name a few — Max is a restless entrepreneur who doesn’t shy away from challenges.

He thinks outside of the box, sometimes creates the box if there isn’t one, and knows how to go beyond the technical to create actionable plans that take all possibilities into account. Before founding the technology division at Circle 6, Max worked at a variety of leading tech firms and gaming companies from Ubisoft to Sonic Boom where he built the development team from scratch.

Understanding human behaviour. It’s no small task, and for Christian it’s been far more than a career. It’s been a vocation. As the the founder of Lanla in 2003, he has specialized in both customer and employee experience. This has involved everything from understanding the needs of target clientele to setting up the necessary structures for evaluation — establishing and operationalizing company goals, as well as creating efficient measurement tools.

Quantitative analysis, research, psychometry and cognitive psychology are just a selection of the many tools in his analytical toolbox. In addition to his work for Lanla, he is also a highly sought after speaker in customer and employee experience measurement and management. This, on top of teaching advanced statistics, research methods and pyschometrics at several prominent Canadian universities. Christian holds a doctorate from Laval University, a postdoctoral fellowship from Carleton University in experimental psychology and is the author of several scientific publications.

Vibrant. Human. Engaging. For the past 25 years, this has been Caroline’s signature, working in numerous decision-making and leadership roles to help companies grow and create unique identities leading to unparalleled customer experiences. Highly inspirational, she has implemented and driven the kind of practices that generate high employee and customer loyalty, and quite often exceed the financial objectives of organizations.

Customer experience has always been at the heart of Caroline’s career trajectory whether working at Citibank, Visa or Fido where she was tasked with renewing business practices to improve performance on all levels. Or in key roles such as VP, Operations, Customer Experience for Groupe CH (Bell Centre, Montreal Canadiens, Evenko) or in the development of service culture at Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Espace pour la vie, Botanical Garden, Planetarium, to name more than a few. Today, Caroline plays a key role on the Union team as VP, Culture and Organizational Development, helping clients to become more employee and customer centric.

Leadership. Vision. Innovation. When it comes to customer experience this is what Vincent is all about. Leading the Lanla solutions and customer strategies team since 2015, Vincent is one of the customer experience markets most respected practitioners. From upgrading existing programs to developing new solutions, Lanla customers can count on Vincent to deliver — and beyond. His specialization is in customer experience from implementation of personalized measurement tools to the development and implementation of numerous customer experience programs for major Canadian brands. Among them he has been intricately involved in customer experience measurement and management programs for companies such as: Groupe Germain, Le Groupe Maurice, Familiprix, Intact Assurances, SAIL, 3 Brasseurs and the Rôtisseries Saint-Hubert. Vincent holds a Master’s Degree in Tourism development from ESG UQAM and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a marketing option from HEC Montréal.

Taking on the customer journey from A-Z. Customer service, customer experience, customer management — there isn’t much that Myriam hasn’t worked on. From the restaurant industry to the organization of major sporting events, Myriam is extremely skilled in managing large-scale contracts. And has been doing so since she joined the Lanla team in 2012. Director of operations since 2017, Ms. Parent oversees the entire operations team, managing the productivity and profitability of major mandates with an extremely steady hand. But that’s not all, as a driven and highly versatile manager, she also regularly fine-tunes data collection management processes and exercises constant operational control to ensure optimum and uniform quality of Lanla’s research work. Factor in her ability to manage numerous files simultaneously, exceptional skills in personnel management and team development, and so much more, and it’s easy to see what an invaluable asset Myriam is to the company.

It’s all about client experience. As the Director responsible for strategy on many of our major accounts, as well as partner relationship management, Francois has provided consistent leadership and management experience based on results and solutions. With over 25 years experience, featuring numerous leadership positions in sales and consulting services, Francois has always made it his mission to establish client trust and build solid client relationships. With a solid knowledge of management consulting, as well as acquisitions and mergers — Francois has brought his sought-after skills to the rapid expansion of companies such as Discreet Logic and Kaydara inc. while gaining profound insights into international markets — Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Bringing brands to life. As an Art Director with TM Design for the past 17 years, Martine has developed a heightened sense of understanding when it comes to interpreting client needs. By taking the time to immerse herself in the client’s universe and connect with their values, Martine takes brands to the next level with distinctive and exceptional visual concepts. But exquisite Art Direction is just one Martine’s many talents. She understands that making a brand come to life requires more than just stand-out design, thus she also takes part in the strategic development of many projects, as well as following through on productions from concept to final product. From small to large-scale projects you can always count on Martine to delivers 150%.