Dawna Henderson

Dawna brings 24 years of creative and business knowledge to her role as President & CEO of henderson bas. Her wealth of experience started in photojournalism, where Dawna was a photo editor on the international desk for both the Associated Press and Canadian Press. Her photojournalist background allowed her to propel into video producing, where she became an award-winning producer for her work with the first multiple screen video walls at Expo ’86.

From there, Dawna joined Advertising Agency Ogilvy & Mather as an account supervisor, and garnered the fundamental agency experience required to one day run her own shop. In 1989, Dawna began to realize that her innate talent and true passion lay within the technology sector, and she quickly absorbed herself in the fast-paced world of multimedia and the internet, becoming one of the first people in Canada to have an email address. Dawna was the first Director, New Media with ICE working with such clients as Apple, Nortel, Stentor and Oracle. Followed by becoming head of new media for Karo.

Dawna, long considered an industry pioneer, founded one of the first digital marketing agencies in the country in 1999. Her innovative thinking and deep understanding of the medium has attracted a blue chip client list that includes Coca-Cola Ltd., ING Direct, Joe Fresh, Molson Canadian, Capital One, eBay, Nintendo, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, and Levis Strauss & Co. To honour the contribution of her early key clients to the development of the agency, Dawna immortalized them by including them in the name of the company. The bas in henderson bas actually stands for Beer (Molson), Apparel (Levis) & Shoes (Nike).

Her current responsibilities include leading henderson bas' strategic direction as well as overseeing dynamic campaigns that have produced unsurpassed results and recognition throughout the industry. As the most awarded interactive agency in Canada, henderson bas has been identified as a digital leader at global award shows such as Cannes, the London International Awards and the One Show Interactive Awards. Dawna has also been listed by Profit Magazine five years running as one of Canada's top 100 women entrepreneurs and was recently recognized by Strategy as one of the industry's marketing “Wonder Women”.