DS Talent Pool: Mark Lawson

September 16, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Mark Lawson and I go back several companies between the two us, and have done a number of similar things. He’s the subject of my second DS Talent Pool profile.

A Toronto guy, Mark recently left Bassett Media Group this spring after a couple of years of riding the rollercoaster that is a DOOH media startup. Before that, he spent a bunch of years starting one of Canada’s biggest Out Of Home media companies down the path to digital.

Conservative and publicity-shy Pattison Outdoor Advertising has pretty quietly been building up a substantial DOOH footprint in recent years – with big LED boards on a main freeway in Toronto, screens in malls and a large presence in office tower elevators.

Prior to that he worked with Apple, pre-iPods and Phones and Pads

Lawson spent this summer taking the rare chance to hang out with his wife and kids in town and at their cottage up north, but with the leaves starting to turn just a little, he’s now sniffing around.

He has a lot of experience working with C-level people in the leasing, ops and technical side. He gets content. And he understands and has done the business planning side of this sector. Mark says he likes the idea of a Malcolm Gladwell trifecta role of “Connector, Maven and Salesman wrapped into one” in his next gig.

Good, fun guy. Classic Canadian who likes his hockey, curling and beer – though he also lo-o-o-ves NASCAR and was in kid in candy store mode when a business road trip detoured us to a race in Charlotte.

He’s doing a little consulting right now but certainly open to chats. His Linkedin account is pretty threadbare so the best way to get him is the sorta old-fashioned way: mlawson [at] sympatico.ca

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