Patrick Lauzon
Chairman of the Board

Patrick holds the position of Vice-President & General Manager, National Markets at Yellow Pages Group. He was previously with Sun Media, where he served as Executive Vice-President, Online and New Business Initiatives. Patrick has distinguished himself in the Canadian media and Internet sector by demonstrating both leadership and innovation and through his involvement in numerous associations. He has also served on the boards of Virtual Paper and LIPSO and is the current chairman of Acquisio, a leading developer of pay-per-click management tools. He also started Founders & Funders in 2007, an event series which helps match entrepreneurs with investors.

Patrick has an extensive background in developing media companies and in working with prominent Canadian advertisers. In addition, he has been active in the start-up industry as an investor in Montreal Start Up, provider of seed-level financing for entrepreneurs, and other initiatives. He was recognized by Marketing Magazine as one of Canada’s Top 100 future opinion leaders, and has been named a member of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40™. In recent years, he enjoyed great success as a leader at Sun Media, Canoe.ca, Sympatico/MSN and Bell Canada.

Marco Dodier is President of Gesca Digital Investments, a division devoted to gathering investment and incubation projects in the field of new media.

Under Mr Dodier’s leadership, the company’s development strategy aims to improve its competitive position through the consolidation of its presence in Canada’s digital space.

Marco Dodier’s mandate is to locate, examine and negotiate new businesses opportunities related to the new media industry. He also oversees the development of new projects within this division, and accompanies them as they grow and prosper.

Before joining Gesca Digital Investments, Marco Dodier co-founded a number of companies in the Internet field. Among these ventures is Cesart, a web-design and strategy firm with over 100 employees, purchased by Bell Canada in 2005. At Cesart, he played a pivotal role as strategic planner, decision-maker and negotiator. He also co-founded Cescom, a company specializing in IP communications and Cesart International, offering integration services to cable distributors for high-speed Internet access.

An engineering graduate of the Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres and recognized as a “marketing engineer”, Mr Dodier is also known for his innovative thinking. He was a recipient of the highest distinction at the provincial level, the Krashinsky Award, a show of recognition from the province’s top technology specialists.

Martin Le Sauteur joined Acquisio as President and CEO of the company in April 2008. Martin is a seasoned chief executive with in-depth expertise in both software development and interactive marketing.

Before joining Acquisio, Martin was Executive Vice President, North America of Nurun, one of the top 50 interactive agencies in the world. While there, he helped developing and implementing innovative business solutions both for Nurun and the company’s clients. In addition, Martin oversaw the human and operational resources for Nurun’s North American offices (Montreal, Toronto, New-York and Atlanta).

Prior to Nurun, Martin was the former head of the software division for Mediagrif, a B2B interactive technology firm based in Longueuil (Quebec), Canada, and was also president of Flow Systems, Inc., an enterprise-level software provider based in Chicago and Montreal.

Martin studied in advertising and design in Montreal and Atlanta. He began his career in communications agencies. He rose to the rank of partner at Socom, a Montreal-based agency, where his fresh perspective on Internet applications and his eye for interface design helped make Socom an industry leader. In 1998 Socom merged with Intellia, forming the nexus of the company that would become Nurun Inc.

Marc Poirier is a professional Search Engine Marketer expert with more than a decade experience in the Search industry. He is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Acquisio where he leads all marketing activities.

Prior to his position at Acquisio, Marc was founder and president at Canalytics, a boutique SEM and SEO agency regarded as one of the most active Google Analytics Authorized Consultants in the world today.

Prior to Canalytics, he held various e-marketing management positions for technology and software companies that include Komunik – a Relational Marketing software vendor, Cognicase – a Canadian leading IT consulting and systems integration firms, aside from being a strategic consultant at U.S. based marchFIRST.

Marc began his entrepreneurial career in 1996 while completing his Cognitive Science Ph. D. studies when he founded Webaxis Alliance, an interactive agency that worked on major Canadian websites such as sympatico.ca and canada411.ca.

Whenever the opportunity arises, Marc loves to fish and is an amateur walleye fisherman who shares his passion on his blog, http://marc.poirier.com

Fish on!