GroupM appoints Brian Lesser CEO, North America

9 Nov 2015

Rob Norman Adds Chairman, North America to Global Chief Digital Officer Responsibilities

NEW YORK, NY — WPP’s GroupM, the world’s leading media investment management group, announces the appointment of Brian Lesser to Chief Executive Officer for business in the U.S. and Canada. Lesser was previously Global CEO at Xaxis, the world’s largest programmatic media and technology platform. He succeeds Kelly Clark who will be transitioning to a new advisory role focused on strategic initiatives with clients and specialty businesses over the coming months. In concert with these changes, GroupM Global Chief Digital Officer, Rob Norman, adds the position of Chairman, North America to his responsibilities.

The new roles for two of the industry’s most tech savvy executives reflect GroupM’s certainty that the future of media-driven marketing is inextricably tied to data and technology. Key investments and partnerships over the past several years that support this positioning include WPP’s investments in comScore and AppNexus; GroupM’s and Kantar Media’s partnership with Rentrak; more recent alliances with BuzzFeed and Networked Insights; introduction of the industry’s first data management platform and first programmatic audience platform; introduction of Modi Media, the first fully-formed advanced TV specialty business delivering addressable TV ads at scale; and numerous progressive positions on digital ad viewability and measurement that are focused on raising the bar for effectiveness and trading currency.

GroupM is committed to evolving with data and technology at its center in North America, where many of the world’s leading advertisers, technology companies and digital media pioneers are based. While driving advancement in North America, Lesser and Norman also each continue serving on GroupM’s global executive committee, led by Dominic Proctor, Global President and Irwin Gotlieb, Global Chairman.

“Brian will be a huge part of our future and his appointment reflects our values and ambition, as well as WPP’s drive to achieve 40-45% of revenues from digital in five years,” said Dominic Proctor. “Our future is being built on tech, data, talent and scale. Brian absolutely gets that and is perfectly suited to help us shape that future to best serve advertisers. We’re very fortunate to have him leading our business in the world’s biggest market.”

“GroupM has continuously evolved with clients through major shifts in the media landscape and consumer behavior with data and technology having always been part of the value proposition,” said Brian Lesser. “GroupM has challenged convention and forced dialogue on important issues to help clients be more successful. I’m humbled and grateful to have an opportunity to help continue this legacy at this time when complexity is more profound than ever.”

“This is an exciting time for our company. We have many successes to count and new marketplace challenges to conquer, but above all, we have the strength of our agency brands, our specialist enterprises and our increasing differentiation in the management and application of data that leave us exceptionally well-positioned for the future,” said Rob Norman. “I’m energized by the road ahead and excited to work with Brian and our colleagues on the executive committee for the next chapter.”

Xaxis is separately announcing that Brian Gleason is succeeding Brian Lesser as Global CEO of Xaxis.


About GroupM
GroupM is the leading global media investment management company serving as the parent to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom, and Maxus, each global operations in their own right with leading market positions. GroupM’s primary purpose is to maximize performance of WPP’s media agencies by operating as leader and collaborator in trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. GroupM’s focus is to deliver unrivaled marketplace advantage to its clients, stakeholders and people.

Discover more about GroupM at www.groupm.com.
Follow @GroupMWorldwide on Twitter
Follow GroupM on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/company/groupm