Deborah Aarts Email & Phone Number

Toronto, Canada Area

Apid brings your ideas to life. We develop and deliver content projects that make it easy for you to connect with your audience. We have more than 30 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, executives and creative professionals, and can help you communicate in ways that resonate.

Toronto, Canada Area

In this role, I developed and managed editorially driven commercial programs—comprising research, event, editorial, sales and community management—at The Globe and Mail, with an emphasis on business lists and rankings for Report on Business magazine. I worked across the organization and with key partners to launch and deliver programs that enriched participants, readers and sponsors. Notable projects in my portfolio include: • Canada's Top Growing Companies, an annual ranking of the country's 500 boldest entrepreneurial businesses, based on three-year revenue growth;• Women Lead Here, an annual benchmark of executive gender diversity in corporate Canada;• Changemakers, a list of 50 emerging business leaders transforming business today;• CEO of the Year, an annual celebration of the five best leaders in corporate Canada; and• Best Executive Awards, an annual award to recognize 50 exemplary leaders occupying C-suite (or equivalent roles) in finance, HR, operations, sales and marketing and technology.I also managed partnerships with leading international research organizations for programs such as Best B2B Brands (a partnership with Ipsos), Canada's Top Wealth Advisor (a partnership with SHOOK Research) and Canada's Best Law Firms (a partnership with Statista).

Toronto, Canada Area

In this role, I was responsible for managing key revenue-driving editorial, branded content and related programs for all brands in Rogers Media's Digital Content and Publishing (DC&P) division, including Maclean's, Canadian Business, Chatelaine, FLARE and Today's Parent. My duties included: • Start-to-finish management of the Growth 500 ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies. This annual program ranks participating companies on five-year revenue growth. My role encompassed marketing, sponsor outreach and relationship-building, management of a comprehensive and complex research period, editorial planning and execution and co-ordinating and hosting the program's capstone event, the Growth 500 CEO Summit, among other duties. In 2018, I led the rebranding of the program from PROFIT 500 to its current name.• Managing key revenue-driving editorial projects with third-party partners, including the Canada's Best Managed Companies media partnership between Canadian Business and Deloitte Private (comprising editorial, branded content, and more).• Ideating new revenue-driving content opportunities and liaising with stakeholders in editorial, sales, audience and brand to bring them to market.• Pitching, managing and executing branded content programs (print, digital and more) for our core editorial brands. • Strategic planning, budgeting and resource management.

Toronto, Canada Area

The mandate of the Brand Extensions team was to ideate, plan, execute and grow revenue-driving initiatives to support core brands in the Digital Content & Publishing (DC&P) group, including Maclean's, Chatelaine, Today's Parent, FLARE and Canadian Business. Our team's work involved events, research and affinity programs. As content lead, I was responsible for generating ideas, building content plans and agendas and liaising with multiple stakeholders—both internal (editorial, marketing, events and sales) and external (sponsors and other partners). In this role, I delivered products and experiences that grew audience, enhanced engagement and increased revenue. My job involved:• Start-to-finish management of the Growth 500 ranking of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies. • Conception, project management and successful delivery of new revenue-driving events for Maclean's, Chatelaine, FLARE and others.• Strategic planning, budgeting and resource management. • In 2017 I earned a spot in the inaugural cohort of the DC&P Leadership Program, a nine-month series of immersive sessions designed to equip participants with multi-disciplinary leadership training. The program culminated in a project in which me and my teammates successfully built, presented and defended a comprehensive business case related to the implementation of digital content paywalls.

Toronto

PROFIT was Canada’s leading media brand dedicated to the management issues and opportunities facing Canadian entrepreneurs. In 2013, it merged with Canadian Business magazine, Canada’s longest-serving, best-selling and most-trusted business publication. In 2016, Canadian Business went digital-only. In my work as Senior Editor for both titles:• I conceptualized, assigned and edited editorial features and packages of all lengths and formats. I worked with staff and freelance writers, along with internal art and production teams, to deliver content and digital offshoots that both informed and entertained readers. I spearheaded multiple special packages and projects. • I wrote lively and engaging content for both print and digital, including service pieces, profiles, in-depth features, short department articles. From 2014 to 2017, I wrote a monthly column called The Realist, which offered a hype-free take on business issues relevant to innovation-minded entrepreneurs and managers. In 2017, my work on the latter won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Canada Best in Business award in the Commentary category.• I served as project manager for both the PROFIT 500 ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies and the W100 ranking of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs, ensuring two pillar research projects (each involving months of work by dozens of internal and external stakeholders) were completed on time, under budget and with ample quantitative and qualitative data to support core editorial, event and sponsor initiatives.• I acted as editor of PROFITguide.com in 2014, coordinating the development and deployment of fresh content daily. In that portfolio, I introduced several new departments, including digital-only offshoots of our PROFIT 500 and W100 rankings. I also managed all social media and enewsletter outreach.• I regularly helped plan, coordinate, host and moderate sessions at PROFIT and Canadian Business events.

MM&D (Materials Management & Distribution) is a service-oriented magazine for Canada’s supply chain managers. Its sister title, Purchasingb2b, is a magazine for Canadian procurement managers. I started at MM&D as an Assistant Editor and progressed to Features Editor and Managing Editor before being promoted to Editor of both it and Purchasingb2b in 2009. In my work with both titles: • I co-ordinated editorial content, including the print magazines, websites, enewsletters, events and research projects.• I wrote and and edited hundreds of articles—including service pieces, features, news items, and editorials—on topics of interest to readers working for a broad range of organizations. • I collaborated with external writers and photographers, internal editorial and art staff, two editorial advisory boards and a wide array of industry contacts.• I regularly moderated panel discussions and spoke at industry events.• In 2010, I was honoured with a silver Kenneth R Wilson Award.

The Elliot Lake Standard is a weekly newspaper serving a northern Ontario municipality of 13,000. In my work there:• I developed and wrote upwards of 15 stories each week, contributing hard news items, profiles, in-depth feature stories and editorial commentaries.• I contributed creative, print-quality digital photographs to complement all articles.

Bachelor Of Arts (Honours), History

• Awarded Kathleen A. Herman Prize in Women’s Studies in 2004. • Earned a spot on the Dean’s Honour List in 2003 and 2004. • In 2003.

Education record