CIMMO Launches Revamped Skills Hub: Explore 40+ New Development Opportunities!

CIMMO is excited to unveil our revamped Skills Hub—a modern, learner-first platform featuring 40+ new courses, micro-credentials, and guided learning paths designed for today’s marketing leaders. Whether you’re building fundamentals or sharpening advanced capabilities, the Hub makes upskilling simpler, faster, and more relevant to real-world outcomes.

What’s new

  • 40+ fresh learning opportunities across strategy, brand, digital, analytics, CX, and leadership

  • Micro-credentials & badges you can showcase on LinkedIn

  • Guided paths for early-career, manager, and executive levels

  • Hands-on toolkits & case studies to turn insight into action

  • Flexible formats: on-demand, live virtual, and cohort-based options

Who it’s for

  • Marketing professionals and leaders seeking measurable career growth

  • Teams aiming to align skills with business strategy

  • Students and newcomers building market-ready portfolios

Why it matters

The pace of change in marketing has never been faster. The new Skills Hub helps you stay current, prove your skills, and accelerate your impact—without guesswork.

Start now

  • 👉 Explore the Skills Hub: https://cimmo.org/skills-courses-new/

  • 🎓 Claim your first micro-credential: https://yacademy.io/courses/entrepreneurs-guide-marketing

Have questions? Reply to this newsletter? We are here to help you choose the right path. contact us at info@cimmo.org

CIMMO: Setting the standard for marketing excellence.

DX3 Canada is on March 8-9, Virtually! Have you Registered Yet?

We are just 3 weeks away from Canada’s largest marketing, retail and tech event! The 11th annual DX3 Canada will no doubt be the best yet—with two full days of world-class content and speakers that are leading the industry forward.

Join DX3 Canada, virtually, and learn from their THREE unique content streams. Whether you are interested in future retail trends, innovative marketing strategies or the latest tech disrupting the industry, you won’t want to miss year edition

Download The Brochure

As a Canadian event, DX3 Season 11 is proud to feature incredible Canadian brands changing our nation’s retail landscape:

  • Sarah Jordan, CEO, Mastermind Toys
  • Jose Ribau, EVP, Digital and Innovation, Cadillac Fairview
  • Meghan Roach, President and CEO, Roots Corporation
  • Frederick Lecoq, CMO, Sporting Life
  • Andrea Hunt, EVP, CMO, Arterra Wines Canada
  • Galen Davies, VP, Brand and Commercial Strategy, MLSE
  • Corinne Lalonde, Associate Director, e-Commerce and Content Marketing, SAQ
  • Tara Conway, VP, Omnichannel and Customer Care, The Source

Register Now

Partnership between CIMMO and Preemptor AI is an important step to face COVID-19 impacts.

TORONTO, Sept. 30th, 2020 – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) is thrilled to announce a partnership with Preemptor AI. Preemptor is a Canadian cybersecurity company that uses AI for Identity Verification in academia, financial services, and telemedicine.

 This partnership aims to reinforce CIMMO’S commitment to ethical integrity in the marketing industry. Preemptor AI was founded by professor and entrepreneur, Midierson Maia, and it is being accelerated by the Spark Centre in Canada.

 “We believe that Preemptor can be an ally of CIMMO during the certification process, ensuring their tests comply with academic integrity policies”, says Midierson Maia, President, and CEO of Preemptor AI.

 COVID-19 has brought an existential threat to learning institutions, such as colleges, universities, and accreditation bodies. As these institutions have moved to the online remote delivery model, the number of academic dishonesty incidents involving cheating, plagiarism, and impersonation have increased exponentially since March 2020.

 “As an accreditation body, CIMMO is looking for modern tools to ensure integrity and ethical compliance”, says Youssef Youssef, President of CIMMO. By using Preemptor AI, test-takers and students can prove their academic originality through the Preemptor Originality Score and Preemptor Originality Seal. It is not only a way to avoid being caught during academic dishonesty attempts, but it is also a way to be certified twice. In the case of CIMMO, test-takers, when approved, will receive both the CIMMO certificate and Preemptor Originality when using Preemptor to do the tests. It is a way to demonstrate that the certified professionals respected CIMMO’s ethical guidelines.

 To be able to use Preemptor, test-takers need to validate their identity on Preemptor AI. The system was designed to recognize and validate the identity of test-takers or students using behavioral biometrics that helps you to identify yourself by using your typing cadence signature. This technology can measure the rhythm of a user during the writing process, ensuring that who is writing an assignment or test is the test-taker, preventing impersonation and ghostwriting.

 “For CIMMO, this partnership is not only a new way to prevent academic dishonesty and uphold CIMMO’s ethical standards, but it is also a way to combine ethics and technological innovation”, says Youssef Youssef, President of CIMMO.

To read more about CIMMO and Preemptor, please visit the websites:

 www.cimmo.org

 www.preemptor.ai

CIMMO Welcomes Walid Kanafani as Associate Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) President and Vice-Chair, Dr. Youssef Ahmad Youssef, announced this week Mr. Walid Kanafani as CIMMO’s Associate Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa.

Walid is a Chartered Professional Marketer with over 30 years of extensive experience across a spectrum of managerial leadership in Strategic Marketing & Media Planning, Account & Brand Management, Corporate & Integrated Marketing Communications, Product Launches & Activation, Professional Media Buying, Digital & Social Media implementation, Research & Analysis.

Walid’s portfolio of clients includes Global Investment House, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Land Rover, Jaguar, Landmark Group, Ford, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, LG, Al Shayaa Group, Toyota, Lexus, Chrysler Group, Boubyan Bank, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), British Airlines, Nestle, Mercedes, The Promenade, Scientific Center, Australian College of Kuwait, KLM, Jashenmal, Peugeot, Samsung, Ahli United Bank, Etisalat, Volvo, Azadea Group, Singapore Airlines, Ericsson, L’OrĂ©al, Audi, Carrefour & Tamdeen Group.

Walid is also an award-winning marketing professional with outstanding records of recognition in the Middle East and aboard. Here is a list of his latest awards:

  • IAA Global Compass Champion Award – June 2020
  • Advertising Creativity Award – December 2018 & 2019
  • Dubai Lynx Silver Award – March 2017 & 2019
  • Cannes Lions Silver Award – June 2017
  • Dubai Lynx Gold Award – Mach 2017

Dr. Youssef announced also that Mr. Walid Kanafani will be leading, CIMMO’s MENA region operations,  from his headquarter in Kuwait City at Salwa, Salem Ghanem Al Harees Street, Block 7, Building 8, Floor 2, P.O.Box 3054, Safat 13031, Kuwait.

We are excited to welcome Walid to the CIMMO family and we are looking forward to working together towards making the World a Better Place through Marketing.

CIMMO Welcomes Shahzad Gidwani as Chief Marketing Officer

TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) President and Vice-Chair, Dr. Youssef Ahmad Youssef, announced this week that Mr. Shahzad Giswani had been named Chief Marketing Officer for CIMMO, effective immediately.
Shahzad is a seasoned marketing professional with a proven track record in marketing management, including brand management, sales management, marketing plan development & implementation, sales staff development, market research, strategic planning & development, and distribution development.
Shahzad is a result-driven, self-starter, and a hands-on professional. In his 20+ of marketing leadership, Shahzad has been delivering sustained sales results while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and building long-term strategic relationships with customers and partners. Shahzad has also used his expertise to generate innovative, strategic, and data-driven insights resulting in increased profit and growth.
On behalf of the CIMMO family, Dr. Youssef Youssef welcomes Mr. Gidwani to the executive team.

Statement about Racism and Discrimination

For more than a week, we’ve been witnessing the events that led to the tragic and unjust death of George Floyd. And sadly, black racism goes deeper—for decades and centuries.Racial inequality and inequity concern and affect all of us. We must band together as a society, and accept and embrace the black community—all communities.

We denounce racism—in all its forms—as a horrendous and unacceptable act, and which has no place in our community. Racism and discrimination are not part of CIMMO’s fundamental beliefs, and we support the action to dismantle and eradicate it.

CIMMO represents marketers locally and internationally. As always, we will continue to live our mission to make the world a better place, through marketing. In earnest, we will—as we have since inception— continue our commitment to working hard with our members, volunteers and partners to promote—and live—a culture of unity, inclusivity, acceptance and respect for ALL people. But there’s much work to do: For starters, we must find ways to better represent the black community in our profession; and we will do our part to effect change in this regard.

We will be listening to our community members and partners, working with them to see real change happen—all, for a better world today, and for future generations to never again, have to experience racism, discrimination and prejudice.

 

 

Dr. Youssef A. Youssef

President and Vice-Chair

CIMMO Welcomes Priscila Sano as the Operations’ Executive Director

TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) President and Vice-Chair, Dr. Youssef Ahmad Youssef announced earlier this month that Priscila Sano has been named Operations’ Executive Director for CIMMO, effective immediately.

Priscila H. Sano has a strategic marketing vision, identifying process vulnerabilities and developing action plans focused on Customer Experience’ excellence. Priscila has long-standing experience in strategic and operational planning, analyzing business results to ensure action plan execution.  Priscila has over ten years’ experience in CRM Management and Ombudsman functions, in the banking and construction industries, designing and implementing customer loyalty strategies resulting in high levels of Customer Satisfaction. Priscila has a substantial background in marketing analytics, management of supplier KPIs such as TMA, SLA, dropout rate, TME, turnover, absenteeism, and operational quality, to improve operational control and customer experience quality control.

On behalf of the CIMMO family, Dr. Youssef Youssef welcomes Mrs. Zahid to the team.

CIMMO welcomes Affaf Zahid as the Communications’ Executive Director

TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) President and Vice-Chair, Dr. Youssef Ahmad Youssef announced earlier this month that Affaf Zahid has been named Communications Executive Director for CIMMO, effective immediately.

Affaf has always had a passion for creative communications. With 8+ years of experience in project management and marketing initiatives in Higher Education, Affaf is adept in the production and effective execution of communication strategies across multiple mediums. Affaf is also a creative writer and strongly believes that the core of marketing is powerful storytelling. Affaf holds an Honours BA in English Literature and Book & Media Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in English from McMaster University. Affaf is excited to draw from the academic and professional domains of her postsecondary experience to deliver CIMMO’s vision and empower the next generation of marketing thought leaders.

On behalf of the CIMMO family, Dr. Youssef Youssef welcomes Ms. Zahid to the team.

CIMMO Welcomes SĂ©rgio Frias as Chief Customer Experience Officer CXO

Dr. Youssef Youssef, CIMMO’s President is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. SĂ©rgio Frias as CIMMO’s Chief Customer Experience Office CXO. Sergio Frias is a senior executive with experience in the Construction, Tobacco and Aerospace industries, where he held leadership positions in Supply Chain, Sales, Contracts, Business Development, amongst others, in companies such as British American Tobacco, Embraer, Bombardier and De Havilland, making extensive use of Marketing as a tool to develop business opportunities and to overcome market and business-specific challenges. Sergio’s most successful career endeavour was the turn around of the business under his leadership, supporting airline Customers and other aircraft operators globally, changing from operations centric to Customer-centric relationships with multiple business partners. This turn around was possible due to the implementation of NICE (Nurturing Insights about Customers Experiences) which is a people and organizational development program, based on mapping Customers’ experience journey, optimizing the resources, evaluating the teams’ profiles to have the right people at the right place, using the right processes, to deliver a world-class experience to Customers.

Sergio Frias will be leading the development of the CIMMO / NICE Training, Assessment and Certification under CIMMO’s flagship. Dr. Youssef Youssef is very happy to welcome Mr. SĂ©rgio Frias to the CIMMO family.

THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT OF ONTARIO (CIMMO) NAMES PAIGE SONTAG CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

TORONTO, ON – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Management of Ontario (CIMMO) President and Vice-Chair, Dr. Youssef Ahmad Youssef announced earlier this month that Paige Sontag, currently Manager, Client Strategy at Nielsen Media has been named Chief Content Officer for CIMMO, effective immediately.

Ms. Sontag is a passionate marketing professional with more than 4 years of experience providing data-driven insights to clients using a wide range of advertising technology platforms. At Nielsen Media, she works hands-on with clients to ensure they have the tools to plan, optimize and act against their digital marketing objectives. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours in English and Psychology at Queen’s University, and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Research Analysis at Georgian College.

In her newly appointed Executive role at CIMMO, Ms. Sontag will lead the development of content initiatives to drive new and current business. She will map out a content strategy that supports and extends CIMMO marketing initiatives, ensuring continual improvement of customer affinity and retention through storytelling. She will leverage market data to develop content themes/topics and execute a plan to develop the assets that support a point of view and educate customers.