Former IPG Mediabrands CEO and industry leader Mark Coad has joined the business growth consultancy 24 Hour Business Plan (24HRBP) as a partner and senior advisor.
He joins his cousin and founder of 24HRBP, Andrew ‘Billy’ Baxter, who set up the business in 2021. The consultancy, which recently expanded to the UK, helps companies develop businesses plans, marketing plans, high performance team plans and more in just 24 hours through six four-hour workshops.
It has worked with more than 200 companies including NRMA, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, Unicef, NEC, QMS, Hallmark and more.
Coad will work at 24HRBP as part of his broader portfolio of consulting and board-level roles, and joins the firm a few months since leaving Omnicom after it acquired IPG Mediabrands.
“It’s a brilliant product, I’ve seen it in action,” he told B&T. “It’s a really succinct, actionable, great way for a business to put a plan together. It draws on experience; Billy’s pulled together raft of senior advisors, every one of them run businesses in their own right.”
Coad said that he has already begun a couple of workshops at 24HRBP and that the role will be a “big part of what I do” going forward.
After taking a break at his family’s regular holidaying spot of Metung in Victoria over the summer, Coad said the “phone has been ringing hot” with new opportunities but working with Baxter has been on the cards for a while.
Baxter said Coad’s appointment reflects the firm’s ambitions and an increasing demand for senior, commercially-minded advisory support.
“Mark is one of the most experienced and respected leaders the media industry has ever produced,” he said.
“This is a major achievement for 24HRBP. Mark brings deep strategic thinking, proven leadership at scale and an unrivalled understanding of how organisations grow, adapt and perform under pressure. His decision to work with us is an endorsement of our model and where we are headed.”
Coad and Baxter were born at the same time at the Jesse McPherson Hospital in Melbourne. The ‘Instant Cousins’ spent their younger years in suburban Melbourne and have remained close throughout their respective lives and careers.
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Coad is one of Australia’s most respected marketing and communications leaders with three decades of experience, leading some of Australia’s top media agencies.
Most recently Coad was CEO IPG Mediabrands Australia where he spearheaded the industry’s first major transformation of automated systems, using robotic technology to fully automate repetitive tasks; this game-changing transformation work was later adopted globally by IPG.
Coad and IPG Mediabrands APAC boss Leigh Terry were relieved of their roles after an Omnicom takeover last December.
Previously, Coad played a pivotal role building Omnicom Group’s media agency business in Australia. He did this first as MD of OMD Melbourne and later as CEO of OMD Australia, where he led the business to prominence.
Coad was later CEO of creative agency Clemenger Harvie Edge before returning to the media sector as CEO of PHD Australia. Throughout his senior leadership tenures, he has always been a trusted advisor to clients and organisations navigating change, growth and complexity.
Coad’s influence across the media and marketing industry and beyond is far-reaching; he has held Board positions on the MFA and ADMA; he is a board director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and on the Board of Trustees of the Commando Welfare Trust. He is also a longstanding mentor for the Marketing Academy’s scholarship series.
Coad’s affiliation with 24HRBP strengthens the consultancy’s senior advisory bench with deep industry credibility and hands-on leadership experience, as demand grows for flexible, high-calibre business support beyond traditional consulting models.
Baxter concluded: “If you are running a medium-sized enterprise through to a major company of a 1000-plus people, there is no better advisor than Mark to partner with to create a strategic business plan geared for growth. It is an asset to be able to call him part of our team.”
