Significant appointments across the industry this week.
WPP has announced the appointment of Brian Lesser as the new Global CEO of GroupM.
He succeeds Christian Juhl, who is stepping down after five years in the role. Christian will take up a new position with WPP as President of corporate Development. Brian spent 10 years with WPP including as CEO of GroupM in North America from 2015 to 2017. He will rejoin WPP and begin his new role with GroupM in September 2024. Christian will continue in his existing role until then and support the transition as he moves to his new position.
Brian first joined WPP with the acquisition of 24/7 Real Media in 2007. He went on to create the Media Innovation Group, building addressable advertising products and technology for GroupM, including one of the industry’s first data management platforms. In 2011 he founded Xaxis, the programmatic media buying platform which now forms part of GroupM’s media performance organisation, GroupM Nexus.
VIOOH, the global digital out-of-home (DOOH) supply-side platform, announced that after five years of service as non-executive Chair of VIOOH, Spencer Berwin – a former Co-CEO of JCDecaux UK – will be stepping down from his position as non-executive Chair and member of the Board of VIOOH.
As a succession to Spencer Berwin leaving the Board, Nick Parker has been appointed as Board member and non-executive Chair of VIOOH, effective from 2nd September 2024. Nick is a global leader of the OOH media industry, In his global role at WPP, Nick grew Kinetic’s influence, making OOH more accessible to advertisers, and pioneered Kinetic in its transition into programmatic trading, enabling multiple brands to benefit from programmatic DOOH’s unique capabilities.
TBWA\London has further strengthened its strategy department with the appointment of Jesper Norgaard as Strategy Director. This new hire follows the recent additions of Raquel Chicourel as Chief Strategy Officer and James Faupel as Head of Production.
Jesper joins TBWA\London from Grey London, where he excelled as Senior Strategist and later Strategy Director; he previously worked at Forever Beta and Nomads Agency in Amsterdam. With professional experiences spanning three different countries – Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK – Jesper brings a global perspective and integrated mindset to his work.
Snap Inc. announced the appointment of Abdulla Alhammadi as Managing Director in KSA. Previously the Regional Business Lead at Snap, Alhammadi will transition into his new role where he will be based in KSA to support the growth of Snap in the country, as the brand and creators look ahead to the opening of both a new office and Creator Studio this year that will be located in the Diriyah Jax cultural district in Riyadh.
Sandsoft, the global mobile-first games developer, publisher and investor, has announced the appointment of Mariana Chucri as its new Vice President of Finance. Mariana joins from Danish studio Trophy Games, which is listed on the Nordic NASDAQ stock exchange. Across 15 years in the games industry, Mariana has also held senior finance roles at notable companies such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Eidos and Square Enix.
Incremental, a provider of retail media measurement, announced it’s expanding its senior leadership team to support the company’s rapid growth.
Bolstered by new partnerships with key industry players, including GroupM, Incremental – which helps brands and agencies drive incremental growth from their retail media investments – has made two strategic hires to elevate its partnership and client success groups.
Ryan Johnson joins the rapidly expanding company as its new VP of Strategic Accounts, responsible for driving forward Incremental’s strategic partnerships. Erin Wilde has also joined as Head of Customer Success, where she will be responsible for leading all client relationships, driving customer adoption and helping brands maximise the value they get from Incremental’s technology.
