About district m
Our mission
In a fast-changing industry, district m strives to be a trusted leader in programmatic solutions, creating strong relationships with both advertisers and publishers. By delivering a transparent marketplace, district m is the fabric that unites both parties to meet today's high digital advertising demand.
The fabric of advertising
district m is a full-service advertising exchange that creates open, transparent marketplaces through which publishers and advertisers can quickly and easily connect to maximize today's digital advertising demand. Since our inception, we have served as a trusted monetization partner to 2,500 publishers globally by bringing incremental demand through over 350 unique brand partnerships.
With offices in Montreal, New York , Toronto and Los Angeles, and propelled by an investment by Fonds de solidarité FTQ, we continue to grow and increase our footprint in the digital media industry. As of today, our company is comprised of more than 90 talented experts who are all responsible for its international success and influence.
district m leadership
Jean-François Côté, CEO, President & co-founder
With over 20 years’ experience in business, Jean-François is an experienced leader and a born innovator: co-founder of district m, he is the chief architect of the company’s corporate strategy and provides leadership to sales and partnership initiatives. Indeed, he was awarded EY's Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 in the Emerging entrepreneur category, and has been recognized at the Arista Gala as Young Entrepreneur: growing enterprise. Before district m, Jean-François shared his expertise with multiples companies such as Pratt & Whitney, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Yellow Pages Media, for which he co-founded the digital media division, Mediative.
Patrice Marin, CRO & co-founder
Patrice had been working in the media and technology industry for 10 years. He has developed an in-depth knowledge of the growing space from both the Demand and Supply side. As Chief Revenue Officer, Patrice leads the supply side in the US and international markets by creating valuable partnerships with publishers, advertisers and technology platforms. His goal is to promote district m as a transparent ecosystem where advertisers can improve their performance by accessing quality inventory from publishers who utilize district m as an efficient revenue partner.
Sebastien Filion, CTO & co-founder
A born entrepreneur, Seb’s journey into digital and ad technology began with his first business, Monclasseur, a popular online dating website. For the next 15 years, Seb continued to build complex web tools and dashboards that helped corporations streamline processes, improve operational effectiveness and generate revenue. Seb’s background in software development and deep understanding of programmatic functionalities from the demand and supply side has supported district m in their goal to help clients yield maximum results from their advertising spend.
Dom Fortin, CIO & co-founder
Dom is a passionate software Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the web industry. With his unique strength in synthetizing complex ideas into simple solutions, Dom’s role as CIO is centered around leading the district m architecture and making core technologies and systems scale big and fast to achieve district m’s strategic goals. With an extensive knowledge of new technologies, Dom is a result-focused professional always in search of new innovative solutions.
Benoit Skinazi, SVP Sales & co-founder
Ben has been working in the digital media industry for over 10 years and has acquired a solid experience in programmatic advertising and ad operations leadership, giving him a broad understanding of the industry. As SVP Sales, Ben created and manages the sales team on the advertisers’ side and always strives to offer innovative solutions to his clients. Before district m, Ben gained his expertise with companies such as Toyota France, Cogeco Media and Mediative.
Adrian Pike, CMO
Adrian has held senior management and leadership positions for over 20 years. Through his extensive experience, he has helped businesses engage with their audiences to drive revenues and build sustainable growth within new and existing customers through marketing and demand generation strategies. He is a customer-driven leader with significant experience in Fortune 500 and privately owned organizations. As CMO, Adrian’s role is to define the marketing and demand generation strategy to build a global presence awareness for district m.
Luc Marsolais, SVP Business Operations
Luc’s extensive finance background and 12 years’ experience in companies such as YellowPages, AutoTrader and Mediative lead him to a senior operation management position at district m. He recently completed an MBA which has helped him acquire strong analytic skills and customer-oriented vision. Since he joined district m, Luc has successfully built a strong technical support system and since then, manages the growing CRM and yield teams.
Sean Sutcliffe, VP Business Development
Having been in the ad tech industry for almost 9 years, Sean has acquired a solid understanding of customers’ goals and of the optimal strategies to put in place to achieve them. As VP of Business Development, Sean uses an objective vision and rational thinking to drive and challenge a team focused on bringing on digital media supply partnerships.
Emil Torma, VP Programmatic Solutions
Emil has over 10 years of digital media operations experience that includes vital ad tech roles at eyeReturn, QMI, Mediacom and Shaw Media. During those years, he specialized in advertising operations, yield management and developing monetization strategies. Passionnate about technology and a solution-oriented professional, Emil oversees newly established Toronto office and manages all Canadian publisher partner operations.
Valerie Brasseur, VP Sales & Operations, go
With 10 years of experience in digital media leading teams with a mandate to grow and develop new markets, Valerie has recently joined district m as Vice President Sales & Operations for go. Her mandate will be to lead the launch of the new platform with a focus on small and medium businesses. Prior to district m, Valérie worked in Sales Management for various organisations such as Yellow Pages, Aldo, and Mishmash Collectif Expérientiel. Throughout the years, she has built a solid experience with the SMBs market across Canada and got to construct a strong reputation in this field. Building sales teams and developing their digital marketing skills have become her passion.
LC Genest, VP Finance & Administration
LC is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a vast experience in multiple industries, such as technology, mining, retail and pharmaceutical. He previously made his mark in both privately-held and public companies and worked among a Big Four accounting firm. His result-oriented vision that led him to a position as VP of Finance & Administration, putting LC in charge of establishing a finance department along with the required systems and controls to support growth.
Leon Gurevich, Managing Director USA & International
Leon brings over 10 years of US and International digital media experience to district m, most recently having spent 6 years at OpenX. Leon also contributed to early programmatic development as co-founder at LiftDNA, which is credited with defining early approach to header bidding. As Managing Director, US & International, Leon will manage the New York office and help expand American and International operations, publisher and advertiser partnerships.
Natacha Brind’Amour, Director People
With seven years of experience in human resources, including four at Deloitte Canada, Natacha Brind'Amour has joined the district m team to help grow a successful Quebec-based company. As the head of Human Resources, Natacha works in partnership with the management team to put in place the best HR strategies to support district m in its growth. Talent acquisition, the development of employees and the implementation of a strong culture within the company is at the heart of her strategy for the year.
Our mindset
A strong team is key to achieving success. At district m, we surround ourselves with the best and together, we aim towards one common goal: push off the limits of the industry to become trusted leaders in the market. Our seven values represent district m's essence, and both drive and motivate our teams to go above and beyond, every single day.
stronger together
More than ever, we believe all players of the online advertising ecosystem need to work together, share ideas and build a common vision to create a transparent, collaborative and honest industry. At district m, we want to create relationships amongst our employees, but also with our clients and partners that cater to that mission. Our doors are always open so that we can benefit from one another’s knowledge to come up with the best solutions, whether that be for a client or for the industry at large.
be fearless
The programmatic industry is not short of challenges and because of the strong bond we aim at creating among all players, we can face those challenges with open arms. A challenge means change, and in our industry, change is always a good thing. That’s why we encourage all of our employees to take risks. When you work in a business where the next best thing is always around the corner, you have to question yourself, challenge your vision, give your best shot and deliver the greatest work possible. And if we fail, we get back up and start again. That’s how we become experts that will never settle for less than excellence.
drive innovation
Working together and being fearless is what helps us dare to imagine what tomorrow’s advertising landscape will be made of and ensure that we are the ones to drive it. That cannot happen without constantly listening to the echoes of the industry, identifying game-changing technologies and keeping the flexibility to follow our instincts when the time is right. With the knowledge and awareness that we have, we give ourselves the freedom to drive innovation and shape the future of this industry.
110% awesome
Some would call it overachieving, we prefer to believe that we are just 110% awesome. By empowering our employees to drive their own ideas to reality and holding them accountable for their projects, we know that “Good enough” will never be part of their vocabulary.
be you
Come as you are. At district m, we like weirdness. eccentricity. unconventional thinking. Above all, we want to create an environment where our employees and partners are free to bring any idea to the table, as crazy as it may be. The reason we choose our employees is not just to do a job, it’s to build a company that each and everyone can be proud of.
Industry recognition & association
Startup 50
Canada’s Top New Growth Companies 2018
Canada's Top 100 Employer
Category: Small & Medium Employers
EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM 2017 Québec
Category : Emerging Entrepreneur
EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM 2016 Québec
Nominated
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2016
Company-to-Watch Award
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2015
Jury's favorite award
Canadian Technology Accelerator
Six Most Promising Company
technopolys
Contributor
Advertising ID Consortium
Member
IAB
Council member
