bio
Marquis is an eCommunications and marketing strategist with vast experience in new media and information technology. With more than 15 years’ experience in the field, he’s contributed to numerous large-scale government and private industry projects and brought his leadership, creativity, and technical expertise to bear in several diverse initiatives. He has an infectious energy for what he does and the people he does it with and always undertakes every initiative with an open mind and positive attitude.
His journey in new media and information technology started back in 1995 when Marquis founded the Horizon Media Group Inc. (HMG); a media design, marketing and web solutions company focused on consultants, start-ups and not-for-profit organizations. By 2004 HMG merged its existing client base with Imatics Inc. - a company where, from 2003 to 2006 Marquis acted as Business Development and Solutions Manager and delivered over 100 comprehensive communication solutions to a large number of government and private organizations.
Continuing to focus his energies in emerging trends of new media and web solutions, Marquis undertook Borealis Network Inc. in 2000. Analyzing the need for start-up resources and seeking to create protected environments to develop new innovation, he served as Executive Vice-President and Vice-Chairman on the company’s board of directors. During that time, Marquis was responsible for overall marketing, networking and business development activities which included corporate branding, partnerships and new business opportunities. By 2001, Borealis was estimated at a net worth of four million dollars but, after the market crash of 2002, Borealis decided to close its doors. The business model still lives, however.
Marquis’ passion for media and the web kept him busy outside of Borealis as well; he was recruited in 2002 by Elections Canada to initiate their overall web strategy and worked closely with their communication and informatics Directors and Managers, submitting his report for them in April of that year. What’s more, in 2001 Marquis completed a four-year position with Industry Canada’ Connecting Canadians initiative, completing its mandate to connect all Canadian schools and libraries to the internet. As a New Media Consultant, Marquis manages the development and launch of over fifty medium and large-scale projects. he also created and maintained the internal creative media team, created and managed the departmental intranet, and formalized the internal communication between twenty departmental webmasters as chair of the Webmaster’s Advistory Committee.
2004 saw the creation of The Other Side Studios, a Canadian think-tank and production house created by Marquis for entertainment services and products ranging from the production of social networking events to innovative and interactive digital media products. In 2004 he successfully launched The Other Side’s first production "clickathon" photography marathon events to generate royalty-free images. In 2005 Marquis also launched digitalOttawa.com with OCRI; an initiative to connect Ottawa’s digital media community. By connecting various people and resources to business opportunities, potential markets, ideas and inspiration, digitalOttawa.com helps innovators and pioneers find one another in the National Capital Region.
In 2006 and 2007, Marquis branched to Montreal and joined Codency Inc. as Director of Business Development. An established firm with offices in Montreal and Paris, it provides early-stage financial and management services to companies and entrepeneurs worldwide. When his term with them was finished, he had created the internal production team, “Studio Codency“, and advised in the strategy, business creation and launching of Pixilis, GigaSize, Diamancy, StillChic and Needen.
Today, Marquis continues to spearhead thriving new media initiatives and focusing digitalOttawa.com on public sector projects while enjoying fatherhood of two beautiful children and occasionally indulging a passion for amateur photography.
