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GroupM hands APAC CEO Mark Patterson global remit

GroupM hands APAC CEO Mark Patterson global remit

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GroupM has promoted its APAC CEO and chairman of GroupM China, Mark Patterson (pictured), to chief operating officer based in New York. GroupM's spokesperson confirmed the appointment to?Marketing, adding that?Patterson will be responsible for GroupM's regional and country leadership and the investment, services, and IT functions. The spokesperson added that Patterson will continue to closely oversee APAC until a successor is named.

In an internal email seen by?Marketing, global CEO Christian Juhl said Patterson will be relocating from Hong Kong to New York "to best deliver what GroupM and our agencies need". Juhl added that Patterson "has experience and success in these areas, and he is so passionate about the job".

Patterson was promoted to his current role in 2010, and was responsible for all of GroupM's media business in Asia Pacific, including Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Xaxis and Essence. Prior to this, he was CEO of North Asia for GroupM from 2006 to 2010.

Before being elevated to a role at GroupM Asia Pacific, Patterson was with Mindshare for about six years, first as CEO of Mindshare Japan then CEO of North Asia. He also worked at Ogilvy for eight years, last helming the role of group media director.

Meanwhile, the agency also reshuffled its global leadership team. This sees Essence?s co-founder and chairman, Andrew Shebbeare (pictured below), being promoted to the role of CEO of 2Sixty and acting CTO of GroupM.

Juhl said in the internal email that Shebbeare will be responsible for?combining [m]Platform and Essence?s 2Sixty into one, holistic team that the agency is able to leverage globally. He will continue to be based in London.

Brian Gleason (pictured below), CEO of GroupM's performance media group has been elevated to the role of chief commercial officer to lead an expanded portfolio of specialty businesses. Based in New York City, Gleason will work close with GroupM's technology organisation - Xaxis, Finecast, Motion Content Group, Kinetic, as well as a new businesses targeted at aiding clients that require help with in-housing. According to Juhl, more details about the new business will be revealed soon.

Additionally, GroupM also promoted COO Colin Barlow (pictured below) to global president of GroupM Services, leading the services side of?[m]Platform. He too will also be based in New York City. All four individuals will join the global leadership team.

These leadership changes come approximately four months after Juhl was named global CEO, replacing Kelly Clark. Juhl added in the email that he is "committed?to building a powerful collective intelligence capability to better enable [GroupM's] agencies in helping [its] clients grow their businesses".

"I continue to be extremely excited and energised by our clients and our teams. Since taking the helm, clients have told me over and over again how much they love their agency teams and how proud they are of the work we?re producing," he added.

Just this week, GroupM named Michael Beecroft CEO for Northeast Asia, replacing?Chung Youngoo who took on the role of GroupM CEO for Korea. In August this year, it also promoted?global chief client officer Kyoko Matsushita to global CEO, replacing Juhl.

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