Critical Mass was founded when a design visionary and a successful entrepreneur came together with a focus on digital experiences in a rapidly evolving space. Over the next 23 years, we helped global brands reimagine digital and transform their businesses through strategic consulting, innovative creative ideas, and cutting-edge technology thinking.
Today, we are 950 employees across 12 global offices. Even though we’re much bigger than when we started out in Calgary, we remain true to our roots—we’re transparent, honest, passionate, and have a can-do attitude that our clients notice and appreciate. Our executive and global leadership team use an open and accessible management style to drive our success on all fronts: innovating our services, mentoring our talent, and ensuring we deliver industry-leading work. We believe this is core to our success as a digital leader.
We are now majority-owned (99%) by Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC). Omnicom is one of the largest holding companies for global advertising, marketing, digital and communications services firms. Their global revenue is over $15 billion, and they have more than 5,000 clients in over 100 countries.
Headquarters
1011 9th Avenue SE, Suite 300, Calgary, T2G OH7, Canada
As CEO of Critical Mass, Dianne’s passion is doing extraordinary work that transforms clients’ businesses by improving customers’ lives. In her 19 years with Critical Mass, Dianne has held many influential positions—managing director, coach, entrepreneur and leader for teams and clients.
Chris Gokiert
President
Chris Gokiert is the President of Critical Mass, overseeing key client relationships, the development of service offerings and the operations of the company. He came onboard in 1998 when the company had only 35 people and has led key global client relationships ever since.
Grant Owens
Chief Strategy Officer
Grant Owens is the Chief Strategy Officer at Critical Mass. His role at the agency is to lead strategy teams across the globe to ensure the agency is relentlessly focused on designing meaningful experiences that improve customers’ lives.
John McLaughlin
Chief Operating Officer
As Chief Operations Officer, John is charged with overseeing the efficiency of the Agency’s process and quality of its work product. John has developed a great understanding of the challenges facing complex organizations and enjoys identifying and capitalizing on opportunities for improvement.
Lee Tamkee
Chief Financial Officer
With over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurial, start up, turnaround and corporate environments, Lee is well-equipped to lead Critical Mass’s pursuit of operational excellence.
Sara Anhorn
EVP, Talent
Sara has over 15 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Project Management and People Development on both national and international scales. As the EVP of Talent, Sara oversees HR and Recruiting.
Mark Ashbaugh
EVP, General Manager, Toronto
Mark Ashbaugh is the EVP, General Manager of the Toronto office responsible for driving the office growth, strategy, and operational excellence.
Darryl Braunmiller
EVP, General Manager, New York
Darryl leads our key B2B clients and NYC office, including SAP and Citibank. His roots in eCommerce, website and digital solutions lend the experience and expertise our clients seek when taking on complex platform and digital challenges.
Jaime Escobar
EVP, General Manager, Costa Rica
Jaime is an experienced Internet professional with a passion for the synergy created by business, creative and technology. He has been primarily responsible for delivering business results by managing geographically distributed teams creating, developing and implementing large scale solutions.
Diane Heun is a seasoned business development professional with a strong focus on the digital space. For 15 years, she’s been a key driver of growth for Critical Mass, whose client list includes Citi, Nissan, Apple, Marriott, J&J, Luxottica and more.
Andrea Lennon
EVP, Managing Director, London & Hong Kong
Andrea Lennon is EVP, Managing Director responsible for agency operations, leadership on existing client relationships and new business development throughout the APAC and EMEA regions. Andrea joined Critical Mass from WPP, where she served as Executive Vice President, Consumer Brand Lead.
Jocelyn Loria
EVP, Finance
As the EVP of Finance, Jocelyn oversees CM’s Canadian business operations as well as global planning and reporting for Critical Mass. She manages a dedicated team of finance professionals in four continents.
Deb Pasquale
EVP, Client Partner
Deb Pasquale is Execut Vice President, Client Partner of our Nashville office with responsibility for Nissan North America, which is headquartered there. She joined Critical Mass in 2012 as VP Client Partner on Nissan and has since led the team in launching a diverse portfolio of product experiences
Lisa Penelton
EVP, Marketing Science
Lisa has more than 25 years’ experience in modeling, analysis and optimization – 20 years of that in marketing with the last 15 blending online and offline. Today she manages a global team of data scientists, optimization experts and tracking savants all focused on brand growth & program efficiency.
Scott Hughes
EVP, Strategy
With a passion for all things digital and over fifteen years’ experience with Critical Mass, Scott has played a key role in driving digital strategy and customer experiences for some of the world’s biggest brands.
Steve Savic
EVP, Executive Creative Director
Steve creates cutting-edge digital experiences that put people right in the action. He has led work that covers the digital spectrum, from break-through transactional to brand-rich campaigns for Dell, Rolex, Nike and Nissan.
