GroupM removes global CEO roles across agency brands

Media buying ad group GroupM has binned global CEO roles of its major agencies in a bid to streamline its business, say media reports.

Mindshare global CEO Adam Gerhart has become the global chief client officer of GroupM. He will oversee major accounts and client engagement across all GroupM agencies globally.

Toby Jenner, Wavermaker’s global CEO, is GroupM’s new global chief business officer and will drive the agency’s global development through growth, marketing, and cross-WPP integration projects.

GroupM COO Mark Patterson is now global president, markets and business operations, he will oversee growth markets in APAC, and LATAM as well as key investment, offshoring, and sports and entertainment initiatives. Filling in the global CCO role is McKinsey and Company’s Emily Del Groco where she led commerce, media, and advertising practice. 

All of them will report to GroupM global CEO Brian Lesser. 

As per AdAge, internal leaders of GroupM’s agency brands will lead operations during the transistion: “Three presidents for global client solutions will oversee global operations and multinational clients for Mindshare, EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker. 

“Michael Karg and Ruth Stubbs will assume these roles on an interim basis for Mindshare and Wavemaker and Frances Ralston-Good will continue to oversee EssenceMediacom’s global operations during the transition to the new model, a GroupM spokesperson said. Agencies will continue to be operated at the country level by their market CEOs.”

A LinkedIn post from GroupM says, “We’re working together as one company to build for the future and help our clients navigate the changing media landscape.” 

It’s a time when digital advertising is dominating ad spends. Pureplay digital advertising (excluding CTV and digital OOH) is projected to grow by 10% and account for 72.9% of total advertising in 2025 and 76.8% in 2029, says GroupM’s end-of-year global advertising forecast in its annual This Year Next Year report.

Advertising agencies are losing money to big tech like Google, Meta, and Amazon. In response, agency-holding groups are turning to consolidation. A couple of weeks ago, Publicis Groupe announced it was merging Leo Burnett with Publicis Worldwide to create a new entity called Leo. In 2024, Omnicom announced it was buying rival IPG to form the world’s largest agency-holding company. 

In 2023, WPP brought together Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to form VML, the world’s largest creative company, combining brand experience, customer experience and commerce, as per the company’s press release.