GroupM has promoted three key members of its digital team, including two newly created roles.
John Miskelly (above), currently head of digital, steps up to the role of chief digital officer of GroupM, taking on additional responsibilities as he oversees the group’s digital investment on behalf of clients. A long-standing GroupM employee, Miskelly has been at group level for close to two years after spending five and a half years with MediaCom.
Miskelly said of his promotion: “It is a great honor for a more elevated role across the group and look forward to the challenge. We currently have market leading digital capabilities across the agencies, Xaxis, GroupM Connect and Plista. The goal will be to further strengthen these products and services to take our clients to the next level in digital thinking”.
In addition, Xaxis operations director Timothy Whitfield (above) will take on the newly created role of director of technical operations for GroupM, reporting to Miskelly. Additionally, GroupM will initiate a One Voice Tech strategy which will ensure that all technology vendors that GroupM engage with, across the group, work seamlessly together. “I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to work at a group level within the organisation. Working within the WPP family is extremely rewarding. It’s a challenging role so I’m very happy to be surrounded with colleagues like Miskelly, Carlsen, Simpson and Rennie.” said Whitfield.
At Xaxis, GroupM’s global programmatic media and technology platform, Esther Carlsen (above) has been promoted to Managing Director from her current post of General Manager. Under Carlsen’s leadership, Xaxis has expanded to a team of over 30 programmatic specialists, across multiple disciplines, whilst launching a suite of new marketing products. These include Xaxis Radio, Australia’s first programmatic product for buying digital audio ads, and Xaxis Sync, which allows advertisers to sync TV ads with their digital advertising running via Xaxis.
Esther said: “I’m very proud of the work we have done over the past two years at Xaxis, developing what I believe to be a compelling solution for our agencies, clients and industry partners. I’m excited to be leading the business into what still promises to be a challenging, ever changing and therefore exciting future.”
GroupM CEO Asia Pacific Mark Patterson said: “We have a world class leadership team in specific fields in Paul, John, Esther, Seb and Tim. They are immersed in new tech, new businesses, new opportunities and new products in the digital and data areas that overlap and require them to work closely as a team which they do superbly. Just last week three of them were together in Silicon Valley meeting tech businesses, developing new thinking and product ideas for our business and clients here in Australia. The new responsibilities and reporting to the top will ensure they have the support to capitalise on all the potential that is out there.”
In addition, the promotions put into place new reporting lines, with Miskelly, Carlsen, GroupM chief investment officer Seb Rennie and GroupM chief knowledge officer Paul Simpson all to report to the GroupM Australia & New Zealand CEO.
