Montreal's Top Employers (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 38
MONTRÉAL’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2026)
38
Caring for animals drives the purpose at Zoetis
E
ver since she was a
young child, Clotilde
Francis knew she
wanted to be a
veterinarian. “I never
wavered from that ambition. It was
a straight line, from the age of four
to university,” she says. Today, the
associate director of marketing at
Zoetis Canada Inc. says her love
for animals has always guided her
career.
A global and Canadian
leader in animal health, Zoetis
discovers, develops, manufactures
and commercializes vaccines,
medicines, diagnostics and other
technologies for both household
pets and livestock. Zoetis operates
in more than 100 countries. At its
Canadian head office in Kirkland,
close to 70 people support the
commercial field activities
nationwide.
The culture at Zoetis Canada is uniquely collaborative, with a high rate of employee satisfaction and a low
rate of attrition.
I would encourage
anybody who is looking
for meaningful work,
has a passion for
animals and wants to
feel like they’re doing
the right thing in an
ethical way, to look
at the animal health
sector. It’s really a great
place to be.
— Clotilde Francis
Associate Director of
Marketing
After graduating from
veterinary school, Francis first
worked in private practice, caring
for animals and supporting pet
owners directly. While there,
she frequently collaborated with
Zoetis, sharing her expertise
through presentations to fellow
veterinarians. This ongoing
contract work became the “spark”
for her career shift, inspiring
her to bring her veterinary
knowledge to the industry side of
animal health, where she saw an
opportunity to influence care on a
much broader scale, she says.
Before long, in 2009, Francis
was hired full time at Zoetis,
where she applied her veterinary
knowledge to animal health
pharmaceuticals. Eager to expand
her impact and embrace new
challenges, she decided to take
on a stretch opportunity in 2015
by moving into the marketing
department. There, she was able
to learn new skills and leverage
her in-depth expertise, using her
strong communication abilities to
help connect veterinarians and pet
owners with innovative solutions.
“My role is to understand the
challenges veterinarians and pet
owners face and create strategies
to address them,” she says. “That
really fulfils my core desire to
strengthen the bond between pet
owners and their veterinary teams.
By working within the industry,
I’ve been able to make a difference
beyond one-on-one interactions,
helping to support animal care on
a much larger scale. It really was a
dream come true.”
A love for animals and wanting
to help keep them healthy is
a common bond for Zoetis
colleagues, says Dori Herczegh,
director, human resources
business partner for Canada and
Latin America.
“People drawn to this industry
really have a strong connection
to animals and understand the
importance of the human-animal
bond,” she says. “Whatever
they do, whether it is in sales or
marketing or any other function,
Zoetis employees are connected to
our purpose, which is to nurture
the world and humankind by
advancing care for animals.”
Herczegh notes that the Zoetis
culture is very unique, where
people are committed to doing
their best work and performing
with integrity. The most recent
employee survey noted a 92.5 per
cent engagement rate — and since
most feel fulfilled with their work,
the company has a low attrition
rate, she says. This shifts the
