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Annie Levesque
SVP, North America & Managing Director Montreal
Professional Background
Annie Levesque is a prominent entrepreneur and executive in the digital agency and internet industry, with a career spanning over two decades. Since 2000, she has made significant contributions to the growth and development of various companies, showcasing her exceptional leadership skills and business acumen. Currently, Annie is leveraging her extensive experience as the Co-President of Valtech in Canada, where she continues to drive innovation and transformation in the digital landscape.
Annie co-founded the acclaimed digital experience agency, w.illi.am/, in 2008. Under her guidance, w.illi.am/ has ascended to the forefront of the digital marketing and transformation sector in North America. The agency has partnered with prestigious clients such as Mary Kay, Bombardier, Cogeco, Banque Nationale du Canada, and Pratt & Whitney, among others. Annie's vision has been instrumental in positioning w.illi.am/ as an industry leader, renowned for its ability to develop cutting-edge digital solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of clients while employing a multidisciplinary approach that has attracted many top-tier brands.
In 2015, w.illi.am/ caught the attention of Valtech, a global player in digital transformation, leading to its acquisition, with a strategic focus on establishing a robust presence in the Canadian market. Annie’s insights into business operations and development significantly contributed to this successful transition.
Prior to the launch of w.illi.am/, Annie honed her expertise at CESART, a Montreal-based digital consulting firm, from 2000 to 2007. During her tenure, which saw CESART become part of Bell Canada following its acquisition in 2005, Annie played a critical role in developing and overseeing all operational facets of the company. Even after the acquisition, she championed the restructuring of the sales strategies and processes, further demonstrating her operational prowess.
Education and Achievements
Annie Levesque holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on marketing from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. This academic foundation has equipped her with a solid understanding of marketing principles and business strategy, allowing her to craft innovative approaches to leadership problems across various roles.
Annie's positions encompass a remarkable trajectory focusing on sales, marketing, and operational management across multiple organizations. She has served as the Senior Vice President of North America and Managing Director at Valtech, where her instrumental role helped the company excel in business operations, people management, and IT. Previously, she held the position of Senior Vice President of Business Operations at Valtech, significantly shaping the company's strategic direction and enhancing its operational capabilities.
Her prior leadership roles include Vice President of Development at Gesca, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Bell Web Solutions, and Vice President of Operations at CESART. Additionally, she served as Director of Product Management at CESART, where she was central to the development of innovative digital solutions that would meet the demands of a changing market.
Notable Achievements
Annie Levesque’s career highlights a wealth of accomplishments that reflect her outstanding contributions to the digital arena. As Co-Founder of w.illi.am/, she spearheaded the growth of an agency recognized for its pioneering efforts in digital marketing and transformation. The agency’s acquisition by Valtech is a testament to Annie's vision and leadership.
In her capacity with Valtech, Annie has been influential in shaping the company’s strategic initiatives in North America. Her extensive experience in operations, project management, and finances has allowed her to excel in various roles, driving results and fostering an innovative company culture.
Annie's strong commitment to business development and operational excellence has not only enhanced the organizations she has worked for but also set high standards in the digital agency industry.
Achievements
- Co-Founder of w.illi.am/, leading it to become a top digital marketing agency in North America.
- Instrumental in w.illi.am/'s acquisition by Valtech, facilitating expansion into the Canadian market.
- Served in various executive roles at Valtech, enhancing business operations and strategies to drive success.
Location
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.