Christian Juhl instates new GroupM leadership team
Newly installed GroupM chief executive Christian Juhl has made his mark on the media buying giant with the introduction of a new global leadership team.
New chief exec Christian Juhl restructures GroupM leadership team
Juhl was brought in to replace Kelly Clark when he stood down after almost three years in the role in July. Moving over from his role as chief exec of GroupM's Essence, Juhl began work back in October, taking charge of 35,000 employees at the world's largest media agency business.
The restructure comes amid the news that it is disbanding [m]Platform - its data and technology division.
Mark Patterson will take on the role of chief operating officer. Patterson will be responsible overall for GroupM’s regional and country leadership and the investment, services and IT functions. He was previously APAC chief exec, and will continue to oversee the region until a successor is named.
Essence chairman and co-founder Andrew Shebbeare has been named chief exec of 2Sixty and interim chief technology officer, GroupM. He will be responsible for combining [m]Platform and Essence’s 2Sixty organization into one, unified technology team.
Colin Barlow has taken on the role of global president, GroupM services. He will lead what is now a distinct team responsible for, as GroupM puts it, "supporting our agencies [with] the deepest expertise and capability using the platforms that matter most to our clients".
Lastly, Brian Gleason will lead an expanded portfolio – spanning Xaxis, Finecast, Motion Content Group, Kinetic and a new business aimed at helping clients who with in-housing – as chief commercial officer.
Juhl's appointment back in October came amid a number of people moves within GroupM media agencies. In August, Jürgen Blomenkamp stepped down from his role as chief executive and chairman of GroupM Germany.
And back in July, MediaCom announced several simultaneous changes to its global, EMEA and UK leadership teams led by the promotion of Nick Lawson to worldwide chief operating officer.
Lawson’s elevation coincided with that of Josh Krichefski and Kate Rowlinson who helm the EMEA and UK leadership teams respectively.
And Wavemaker’s six-month search for a global chief executive also came to an end when it appointed MediaCom’s chief operations officer, Toby Jenner, to the role.