City life | Playing for CH in the shadows

Our journalist travels around Greater Montreal to talk about people, events or places that mark urban life.

She still remembers winning the Stanley Cup in 1993, and the Provigo figurines (the real ones know!) of her favorite players: Stéphane Richer, Guy Carbonneau, Patrick Roy, Peter Svoboda…

Born in Jordan, Luma Saman grew up in Laval watching Montreal Canadiens matches. “My father used to quibble with us if we passed in front of the TV,” she says, laughing. It was hockey that introduced us to Montreal and Quebec culture.

Our national sport is still part of the 42-year-old’s life, and not just because she’s the hockey mom two boys aged 8 and 11, a goalkeeper and a winger.

Luma Saman is the Senior Director of Partner Experience and Retail for CH Group. In other words, she is the conductor of sponsorship activations and the marketing of all Canadian-derived products.

“My life is from one arena to another,” says the woman who is married to a police officer and lives in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

However, it was at the Bell Center that we met Luma Saman, before the Canadian’s spectacular victory against the Philadelphia Flyers 9 to 3 last Tuesday. The excitement in the air that we feel before each match? It turned into ecstasy over the three periods (and Juraj Slafkovsky’s hat trick!) even if the 20,000 spectators no longer had hope that Martin St-Louis’ troops would make the playoffs.

Luma Saman enjoys attending matches because she can see how all of her team’s work pays off. “It’s energy to keep going. »

“It was a dream for me to work for the CH,” emphasizes Luma Saman, who studied finance at Concordia University. She worked at TD Bank before joining the ranks of the ALDO Group, for which she worked for nearly 15 years, as a buyer or in international market development. “I really worked my way up at ALDO and that’s where I learned everything about retail,” she says.

She knows how to both preserve and push the DNA of a Montreal franchise. But that of the Canadian is certainly in a separate box. “I recognize the responsibility of representing this beautiful brand which is in the hearts of Montrealers,” she says.

Luma Saman orchestrates the marketing of all products derived from the Canadian, but also those from the Spectra and evenko festivals (which belong to the CH Group): Osheaga, Lasso, the Jazz Festival, etc.

These are all events that make Montreal proud, and this is precisely what is at the heart of OG1, the brand inaugurated last year by the CH (in collaboration with Sid Lee), based on what makes Montreal so original with an urban visual identity.

In a more classic register, you can also purchase in the Bell Center stores the model of the very first CH jersey from 1909, even before the creation of the National Hockey League in 1917.

Luma Saman must preserve “a balance between heritage and novelty”. She makes no secret of it: we must seduce Generation Z and the following cohort, the Alphas. His team recently organized events with the young comedian Mégan Brouillard and the musician High Klassified. It is also increasing its associations with reputable local brands, including Petit Lem and Dime.

Women of the Canadian

Luma Saman is one of the important players in the Canadiens organization alongside vice-president of communications Chantal Machabée and director of legal affairs Claudiane Tremblay, to name a few. That’s without counting France Margaret Bélanger, the first female president in the history of the team. Or even the famous organist Diane Bibaud!

Luma Saman was in sixth grade in 1993 when CH won the 24^e – and still last to this day – Stanley Cup in its history. Her teacher that year at Simon-Vanier school, Danielle Charbonneau, was in playoff fever and she had even drawn a t-shirt won by Luma. “She’s a turning point for me. She was the one who gave me confidence. I contacted her recently to tell her that I worked for the CH. »

“I’m waiting for the next Cup, but May 31, 2021 was one of the most beautiful moments of my career,” underlines Luma Saman, recalling the elimination of the Toronto Maple Leafs by the Habs while the latter was in delay 1-3 at the start of the series.

Today, Luma Saman rubs shoulders with former players she admired when they won the Stanley Cup in 1993.

Does she still have her Provigo figurines?

” No. Do you think we should bring them back?

– Yes ! »