IPG Mediabrands Australia CEO Danny Bass has announced the appointment of Dan Johns as chief operating officer of the group, effective immediately.

“As our business accelerates and new skill sets are created for clients, Dan will play a critical role in evolving Mediabrands’ competitive edges into the future,” said Bass. “Dan now has direct oversight of group operations and new product development. He will also play a major role in driving further collaboration across the group and also retains his responsibilities across our programmatic business Cadreon and social media agency Society.”

With his promotion, Johns takes over the chief operating officer role from Reg Davidson, who has been elevated to be chief financial officer of IPG Mediabrands Asia Pacific.

Johns joined Mediabrands in May 2013 as group commercial director. He has already played an important leadership role in many aspects of the group’s operations, particularly as a mentor for Society and Cadreon, which are now mature businesses with staff of 40 and 44 respectively.

Supporting Johns in the COO role are two executives who have been promoted from within the group. Kerry Boys has been appointed strategic operations director after previously working in at UM Sydney. She will focus on new collaboration initiatives across Mediabrands. Hugo Cutrone, also with an extensive track record at UM and other roles in the group, has been appointed business operations director at Mediabrands and will lead several multi-business product initiatives in development.

Dan Johns said, “I am looking forward to implementing many new initiatives at Mediabrands and working with Kerry and Hugo. Their appointments reflect the depth of talent we have in the group to support our continuing evolution.”