IPG Mediabrands has announced the appointment of Melissa Fein as CEO of media agency Initiative Australia. She is currently CEO of IPG Mediabrands’ partnerships and brand experience agency Ensemble.

Fein is set to bring her skill sets from her current position to bolster Initiative’s capabilities through its offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. She will lead a senior team from both businesses with skills in creativity, strategy, experiential marketing, partnerships and implementation.

“Melissa is the ideal executive to lead Initiative in Australia,” said Mediabrands Australia CEO Danny Bass.

“Her media experience plus the great results she has achieved in re-engineering Ensemble will be the key to how Initiative embraces a new positioning in the market and the future of brand engagement for clients.

“Melissa’s superb media instincts and business acumen, coupled to her career accomplishments, are also ideal credentials for her to lead Initiative in this rapidly evolving industry.

“Initiative will bring a unique competitive proposition to the Australia media landscape with greatly expanded abilities in brand building and consulting for clients who are navigating their brands in a vastly more complex market.”

Prior to leading Ensemble Fein led Generate, Network Ten’s client solutions division that specialised in strategic and creative content creation, digital and social integration. She was also previously responsible for launching and leading ESP, Mindshare’s content and partnership division, in the Australian market.

Fein said, “Mediabrands’ broad resources are allowing us the opportunity to create a very distinctive business for this market. Clients want to take advantage of many varied platforms to build their brands. Drawing on Ensemble’s complementary skills means Initiative can challenge media conventions in this newly empowered world.”

Fein’s new leadership of Initiative is effective immediately and she will report directly to Danny Bass.