Luc Chénier

Chénier was born in Alexandria, Canada, and studied graphic design at St. Lawrence College in Ontario.⁠[1]

In 1996 Chénier began his career as art director at the Phoenix Advertising Group in western Canada. In 2000 he moved to Ukraine to work for Bates Advertising; he later recalled that while traveling in Ukraine he approached the local advertising community, was quickly offered a creative director position, and turned down job offers in other countries to take it. From 2003 he worked for J. Walter Thompson Russia for two years.⁠[1][1][2][2][1]

In 2005 Chénier returned to Kyiv to launch the advertising agency 5th Element; in 2008–2009 he was marketing and digital director of MTV Ukraine, after which he returned to Canada to work as global creative director at a gaming corporation.⁠[1][1][1]

In 2013 Chénier became Havas Worldwide’s Director of Strategy for Ukraine and founded Titanium Presentations, a company that makes professional presentations for top-level businesses. While at Titanium he produced the “Ukraine. Open for U” series of promotional videos on behalf of the Ukrainian government, which drew millions of views online. In the spring of 2016 he sold his shares in Titanium to his partners.⁠[3][1][1][1]

On August 1, 2016, then-Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad ZahoorMohammad ZahoorMohammad Zahoor is a Karachi-born British businessman and founder of the ISTIL Group. He studied metallurgy in Donetsk in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, ran a steel business in Ukraine in the 1990s, and after selling his Donetsk steel mill in 2008 turned to real estate and media investments; from 2009 to 2018 he owned the Ukrainian English-language newspaper Kyiv Post.Open the full entry hired Chénier, then 43, as CEO, replacing Nataliya Bugayova, who had left for the United States at the end of the previous December; the search was directed by chief editor Brian Bonner. He was responsible for all aspects of the newspaper’s commercial operation, including sales, marketing, digital development, budgeting and events; at the time the commercial division had 15 people and the news division 23.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

On taking up the post, he said he would seek resources for the newsroom to develop more video content and would connect more with Ukraine’s international diaspora, estimated at at least four million people, to make the newspaper’s reach much more global.⁠[1][1]

On February 8, 2018, Kyiv Post announced that Chénier would step down as CEO on March 1 to start his own advertising agency, with Bonner also overseeing operations, personnel and budget on an interim basis until a successor was found. On March 1 he launched PLAN C, an international communications firm that he said specialized in working with global CEOs and government organizations, with clients including Ukraine House Davos at the World Economic Forum, the Canadian government, the private equity firm Horizon Capital and Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture.⁠[4][4][2][2]

On November 8, 2021, Kyiv Post owner Adnan KivanAdnan KivanAdnan Kivan (1962–2024) was a Syrian-born Ukrainian businessman and the founder of the Odesa real estate developer Kadorr Group; in March 2018 he bought the English-language outlet Kyiv Post from Mohammad Zahoor, becoming its third owner, and held it until his death in October 2024.Open the full entry announced a temporary suspension of publication. Three days later, on November 11, Chénier became CEO again.⁠[5][6]

Chénier said the owner had assured him that his respect for editorial independence over the previous three years “remains unchanged”; he described the decision to suspend publication as made unwillingly, preceded by a complete break in relations with the staff over their opposition to plans for a large-scale expansion. He thanked former chief editor Brian Bonner and all the staff, and pledged that no employee would be left without reasonable financial support, whether or not they wanted to be part of the expanded Kyiv Post.⁠[3][3][3][3]

Chénier announced that Kyiv Post would resume daily online publication from December 8, 2021, and had made a strategic decision to drop paid access and make all content free; the newspaper began issuing refunds to subscribers who had canceled after the suspension or had been canceled by a technical error. He also said new services in languages including French, Arabic, Ukrainian, German and Russian were planned for 2022–2023.⁠[5][5][5][5]

On December 24 Kyiv Post announced Bohdan NahayloBohdan NahayloBohdan Nahaylo is a British-born journalist of Ukrainian descent, an author and a former United Nations official who has long studied the Soviet nationalities question and Ukrainian politics; he headed Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service from 1989 to 1991 and has been chief editor of the Ukrainian English-language outlet Kyiv Post since December 2021.Open the full entry as acting chief editor; Chénier said Nahaylo had played a key role in rebuilding the editorial team and attracting international contributors.⁠[7][7]

After Adnan Kivan died on October 28, 2024, Chénier issued a short message saying he had been assured that Kivan’s legacy for democracy in Ukraine and his full support for Kyiv Post would continue. On November 1 Kadorr Group announced that Ruslan KivanRuslan KivanRuslan Kivan is the head of Kadorr Group, a real estate and investment group based in Odesa, Ukraine, and the owner and publisher of the English-language outlet Kyiv Post; he took over the family business and the newspaper after his father, Kadorr Group founder Adnan Kivan, died in October 2024.Open the full entry would succeed as publisher, with Chénier and chief editor Nahaylo continuing to work with him; Chénier said 97 percent of Kyiv Post’s audience lived in the West. On December 30 he published a long interview with Ruslan Kivan.⁠[8][9][9][10]

In November 2024 Chénier attended Web Summit in Lisbon, and from February 23 to 26, 2025, he spoke at Web Summit Qatar in Doha. He said that when he joined, two months before the full-scale war began, Ukraine lacked media telling its own story abroad, so Kyiv Post cut back its presence inside Ukraine, focused instead on readers in the United States, Europe and Australia, and dropped the subscription model. He said chief editor Nahaylo handles the editorial side and he handles the business, and “we don’t mix those two things.”⁠[11][11][11][11][11][11]

On April 20, 2026, British Ukrainian Economic Future (BUEF), a platform for UK–Ukraine economic cooperation operating with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom, announced Chénier’s appointment to its advisory board; he is also the founder of GNR8me, a platform at the intersection of media, technology and audience engagement. In May of that year he was a featured speaker at Web Summit Vancouver.⁠[12][12][12][13]

Kyiv Post: Official website: https://www.kyivpost.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]

British Ukrainian Economic Future: Official website: https://buef.uk/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]