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WPP appoints John Steedman as chairman of WPP Media for Australia and New Zealand

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By Charlotte McEleny, Asia Editor

April 18, 2016 | 2 min read

WPP Media Services has appointed the former GroupM Australia Chairman and CEO to lead a wider role, helping all WPP media agencies in the Australia and New Zealand (AUNZ) region as chairman.

In the new role, Steedman will be working with the leadership teams of agencies including Ikon, Bohemia and GroupM agencies Mediacom, Mindshare, MEC and Maxus. He has been tasked with building an “overarching business strategy” for the agencies.

However, Steedman says this won’t mean a radical overhaul to the business, as seen at other holding groups.

“While we’ll be trying to achieve greater horizontality, it will be business as usual for the agencies as they look to continue their pattern of growth and outstanding client service. That means Ikon remains as is, GroupM remains as is, and other agencies also remain unchanged. What is different is the ability to drive collaborative opportunities for our clients across a greater breadth of capability,” he said.

WPP AUNZ CEO Michael Connaghan, said the appointment will also see Steedman help lead growth for smaller agencies in the business too.

“In addition to our large iconic media businesses, we have a number of smaller creative and media agencies spread across AUNZ who will benefit from having Steady’s experience available.”

As well as this appointment, Steedman was earlier this month named as director in an appointment to the WPP AUNZ board.

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