Sebastien Provencher

Current

• VP, Product Management, Co-Founder at Praized Media Inc.

Past

• Strategic Consultant (Self-employed)
• Senior Manager, Strategy & New Business Development at Yellow Pages Group Co.
• Senior Manager, Product Management - Local Markets at Sympatico-Lycos/Bell Globemedia Interactive

• Product Manager, eCommerce at Bell ActiMedia / Sympatico-Lycos
• Marketing Manager, USA PC Market at Ubisoft
• Assistant Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble
• Megadome Manager at Nintendo
• Marketing Manager at Premiere Issue

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5 more...

Education

• HEC Montreal
• Laval University

Recommended

14 people have recommended Sebastien

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Company
• Twitter

Sebastien Provencher’s Summary

Co-founder of a start-up operating in the local/social space, with more than 10 years experience in online strategy, product management and business development. I am recognized for my capacity to create online strategic visions from scratch and deploy them in large or small work environments.

I also write a blog on Local 2.0, the intersection of Local Search and Social Media, at http://blogs.praized.com/seb. I am generally considered an expert in both of those fields.

"Seb is one of the smartest thinkers I have ever met when it comes to the Internet." Mitch Joel, Web Guru, http://tinyurl.com/675m2k

On the list of "100 entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter", http://bit.ly/8Y5kt

Sebastien Provencher’s Specialties:

- Strategic Visioning

- Product Management & Development (both from the user and advertiser point of view)

- Business Development / Partnerships

- Rainmaking / Matchmaking

- Business Plan & Business Case creation

Sebastien Provencher’s Experience

• VP, Product Management, Co-Founder

  Praized Media Inc.

  (Online Media industry)

  October 2006 — Present (3 years 3 months)

  The rise of social media online is a game-changing opportunity for local media publishers. People are discussing, sharing and recommending to each other news to read and places to visit on Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed. Millions of word-of-mouth conversations about local places are occurring every day on the Web, yet they are not happening on major local portals. Praized was founded to help media companies tap into the growing potential of online word-of-mouth and social media. Praized’s local newsfeed technology platform harnesses these valuable local conversations by enabling local information about places and bringing them to local media portals. Founded by a team of local search technology veterans and social media experts, Praized received funding from Garage Technology Ventures Canada in September 2007.
  
  I'm responsible for product management, business development and strategic partnerships.

• Strategic Consultant

  Self-employed

  (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Internet industry)

  October 2006 — September 2007 (1 year )

• Senior Manager, Strategy & New Business Development

  Yellow Pages Group Co.

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; YLO_U; Online Media industry)

  December 2002 — September 2007 (4 years 10 months)

  - Involved in the strategic planning and corporate development activities for the Yellow Pages Group's online efforts (YellowPages.ca, PagesJaunes.ca, Canada411.ca, Superpages.ca, CanadaPlus.ca). This network of sites is in the Top 10 most visited in Canada (around 35% reach).
  - Involved with evaluating new business opportunities, partnerships and product line extensions.
  - Support the executive team by performing a variety of due diligence, developing financial and operations modeling, writing business plans, and performing market and competitive analysis.

• Senior Manager, Product Management - Local Markets

  Sympatico-Lycos/Bell Globemedia Interactive

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

  December 2000 — December 2002 (2 years 1 month)

  Oversaw the eDirectory product management team whose responsibilities included P&L for YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, the leading Canadian Internet Yellow and White Pages sites. Managed a team of 3 to 6 product managers.

• Product Manager, eCommerce

  Bell ActiMedia / Sympatico-Lycos

  (Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Online Media industry)

  September 1999 — December 2000 (1 year 4 months)

  Managed SME e-commerce solutions. Responsibilities included product requirements, P&L, vendor relationship and channel support.

• Marketing Manager, USA PC Market

  Ubisoft

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Games industry)

  April 1998 — September 1999 (1 year 6 months)

  - Developed the PC marketing strategy for the US market.
  - Successfully launched 5 titles including one of Ubi Soft’s biggest PC successes in the USA (at the time).
  - Participated in US press tours (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, etc.).
  - Negotiated partnerships deals with major industry partners (including Intel, 3dfx).

• Assistant Brand Manager

  Procter & Gamble

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Consumer Goods industry)

  May 1997 — August 1997 (4 months)

  One of only 14 students in Canada selected for a summer internship in Brand Management

• Megadome Manager

  Nintendo

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Computer Games industry)

  March 1996 — November 1996 (9 months)

  Developed MegaDome pavilion program structure, one of the principal centers of interest at La Ronde amusement park (a Six Flags property). (Summer Internship)

• Marketing Manager

  Premiere Issue

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Retail industry)

  May 1993 — May 1995 (2 years 1 month)

  - Established an international e-commerce sales network on the Internet in 1994.
  - Created and organized a client loyalty program using membership cards.
  - Produced extremely successful PR events.

Sebastien Provencher’s Education

• HEC Montreal

  MBA , Marketing/Finance , September 1995 — December 1997

  Activities and Societies:

  General Secretary of the MBA student association

• Laval University

  BAA , Marketing , September 1990 — April 1993

  Honor Board of the Faculty of Business Administration (Top 7%)

  Activities and Societies:

  VP in Forum Marketing student association

Additional Information

Sebastien Provencher’s Websites:

• My Company
• Twitter

Sebastien Provencher’s Interests:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sebastienprovencher Recent Media Interviews: "Facebook s'est payé une équipe géniale", August 11, 2009, Marketing Magazine, http://bit.ly/1Fhtq9 "Twitter and Local Search: A Status Update", May 15, 2009, http://searchenginewatch.com/3633755 "Web 2.0 le financement facile, c'est fini", Les Affaires, 11/07/2008, http://bit.ly/IxzL "Online search tools gaining ground on phone directories", Montreal Gazette, 11/07/2008, http://bit.ly/11VjB "Tweet, tweet - there's been an earthquake", Toronto Star, 06/01/2008, http://tinyurl.com/65nh7a "Facebook" Radio-Canada, 01/23/2008, http://tinyurl.com/6rhsac

Sebastien Provencher’s Groups:

Official "Save Business 2.0 Magazine" Facebook group Blogger: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2420762508, Montreal Entrepreneur Tech Breakfast, Yulbiz, Kelsey Group Conferences attendee, Google Local Markets Symposium attendee

•    HEC Montreal MBA Alumni (http://mba.clubhec.ca)
•    BIA/Kelsey
•    Université Laval
•    EXPERTS FRANCOPHONES en GÉOSPATIAL
•    Yellow Pages Group / Groupe Pages Jaunes (Canada)
•    Canadian Interactive Experts
•    Yellow Page Professionals Network
•    Location Based Services
•    Yellow Pages Execs
•    Local Search
•    Local Social Summit '09

Sebastien Provencher’s Honors:

- Moderator/Speaker LSS '09 in London
- Moderator: panel on the future of print media, Alliance Numérique, 2009
- Speaker - EADP conference, 2009
- Panelist - Yellow Pages Association Conference, 2009
- One of Canada’s Most Influential Men In Social Media
- Praized Media awarded a special trophy at the Boomerang Interactive Awards 2008
- Panelist - StartupCamp Montreal, 2008
- Panelist - Kelsey Group's ILM '08, Santa Clara
- Speaker - MIXX Canada Toronto
- Panelist - Kelsey Group's DMS '08, Atlanta, 2008
- Speaker - FacebookCamp Toronto4
- Praized Media named a finalist to the Red Herring Canada Top 50 award
- Moderator of a social media expert panel at Infopresse's social networking conference
- Panelist at Google's first Local Markets Symposium in 2007 (an invite-only event)
- Blog listed in the Advertising Age Power 150 list.
- Speaker and interactive session host at the EADP 2007 Conference in Barcelona
- Was invited to Google ZeitGeist in 2005 and 2006

Sebastien Provencher’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch