Personalities
Canadian fashion industry’s Metropolitan Cluster names new executive director
mmode, the Candadian fashion industry’s metropolitan cluster, named Debbie Zakaib to Executive Director of the organisation. Launched in May 2015, mmode brings together all sectors of the fashion industry, and in an effort to join forces and stimulate the growth and competitiveness of Quebec’s fashion industry.
As part of her mandate, Zakaib will implement the new organisation’s business processes, meet with industry partners and actors, and establish strategies that will enable the cluster to fulfil its mission.
“We are very pleased to have succeeded in recruiting an executive director of such talent, states François Roberge, mmode Steering Committee President and CEO of Boutique La Vie en Rose. Debbie Zakaib has in-depth knowledge of Quebec fashion and is well aware of the specific challenges facing the industry’s four pillars–creators, manufacturers, wholesale distributors, and retailers. I have no doubt that she will rise to the occasion and meet every challenge she will encounter at mmode”.
An exceptional spokesperson for Quebec fashion Debbie Zakaib holds a masters’ degree in Marketing from Montreal’s HEC and focused her thesis on fashion marketing in Quebec. After a few years working with the Federal Office of Regional Development on developing a creator’s assistance program and fashion promotion program in Quebec, she spent over 10 years working in the field of consumer goods as marketing manager and brand developer at L’Oréal, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson. She also held a weekly blog for Clin d’oeil magazine, and appeared as an urban chronicler on ICI Radio-Canada television. As a highly engaged woman, she also sits on several administrative councils. Her passion for art and collecting has brought her to sit on the board of directors of Montreal’s Fondation du Musée d’art contemporain, and take charge of organizing their yearly ball. As part of her involvement in the public promotion of art, she organizes and takes on the role of spokesperson for the Foire d’art contemporain de Saint-Lambert.
“I am extremely honoured and privileged to be entrusted with the role of executive director of the fashion industry’s metropolitan cluster. This organization will act as a catalyst in an industry that holds such great importance in the economic, social and cultural spectrum. Fashion is an important part of our heritage as Montrealers. It’s with great pride and passion that I embark on this wonderful adventure,” states Zakaib. She will start her mandate in January 2016.
The mission of mmode, created in May 2015, is to improve the competitiveness of Quebec’s fashion industry and to contribute to its growth by acting as the main platform for exchange and collaboration for the industry’s ecosystem.