Dear clients, partners, and friends,

We wanted to let you know that at the end of December, Matt Smith will be leaving the position of President at Stratcom and moving on to other pursuits. On behalf of the board and staff, we thank Matt for his decade of dedication, innovation, strategic leadership, and helping me and the rest of the team build and run this business first as an Associate, then as head of the Research & Engagement Department and for the past 5 years as President.

Matt’s contributions to Stratcom are many, especially in the areas of product development, quality service delivery, and political campaigning. Matt oversaw our work learning and adapting US invented telephone town halls, micro-targeting, and peer-to-peer texting to Canada and pioneered the development of MobileReach – our list of likely cell phone numbers in Canada. Matt has also been a key player in our political campaign work for countless NDP campaigns at the national and provincial level. He has also been central to our work in municipal campaigns, such as leading our recent research, voter contact and GOTV work for newly elected Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, and our texting and MobileReach work for Projet Montréal and Valérie Plante’s recent re-election campaign for Mayor of Montreal.

We have been planning this transition for some time, and in the lead up to Matt’s departure the senior management team are adjusting roles and building up our team to take over Matt’s responsibilities. Stay tuned for more announcements of further changes soon. For now, a big thanks to Matt and all the best in your next chapter.

Bob Penner
CEO

Dear friends and colleagues,

After a decade working at Stratcom, the last 5 years in the President position, I have decided it is time to move on to my next chapter. Many thanks to the amazing colleagues, clients, and partners I have been able to work with and learn from, especially Bob who has always been supportive of me and my ideas.

It is hard to believe it all started in 2011 when I was setting up 20 plus target riding TTHs for Jack Layton in the run up to the historic 2011 federal election. Since then I have been able to work on many progressive campaigns and with hundreds of organizations and governments advancing social and economic justice, workers’ rights, equity and inclusion, and policies and practices to address climate change.

Highlights of my time at Stratcom include the City of Toronto’s ongoing VaxTO public engagement campaign, research towards the development of CleanBC, and being part of electing strong, progressive mayors like Amarjeet Sohi, Valérie Plante, Charlie Clark, Gregor Robertson, Karen Farbridge, Amanda McDougall, and Don Iveson. It really has been a dream job, albeit a very challenging dream job that has demanded a lot and I am looking forward to slowing down for a while. I am going to take some time off in 2022 before starting my next chapter.

Thanks to everyone at Stratcom for all the lessons, laughs, adventures, friendships, and support.

Matt Smith