Initiative bolsters global strategy team

IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative has appointed Kate Bower (pictured) as global chief strategy officer.In this role, Bower will oversee the evolution of Initiative’s client offerings, products and tools, and partner with the new business team to continue to drive growth for the network. Bower will be based in New York, reporting into Jim Elms, Global CEO, Initiative.Bower most recently served as EVP, Global/US Strategy at Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG) where she was the strategic lead for the agency's flagship Samsung work. She was responsible for driving strategic innovation across all products within the global Samsung business, with a specific focus on evolving the creative space between insights and planning to drive more inventive strategies/activations across 76+ markets.She also led the education and advancement of the worldwide Samsung strategy network and was a member of SMG’s Global Product Committee, as well as serving on the executive management team for Starcom USA and Starcom Global in New York." Bower is the embodiment of who we are and where we want to go at Initiative. Her background and work experience is incredibly diverse in both the locations where she’s worked as well as the client campaigns she’s shaped over the course of her career,” said Jim Elms, Global CEO, Initiative.Bower started her career in London with communications planning as a discipline with Unity (The Ingram Partnership) and Naked. There, she worked across a diverse mix of clients from LucasFilm's Star Wars Prequels and Twentieth-Century Fox to Uniqlo, British Airways and Diageo, before being tapped to lead strategy for SMG across Asia.Based in Hong Kong, Bower re-organised the network to include new and emerging communications channels, approaches and creative techniques for clients like P&G. She then headed to the US to work freelance on Coca-Cola's London 2012 Olympic campaign, and then re-join Naked as Managing Partner of the New York Office.“I am excited to join the Initiative and IPG Mediabrands family,” said Bower . “The vision, commitment to collaboration and top talent is the ideal environment to spark great ideas that result in innovative platforms and products and most importantly, best-in-class thinking that will challenge what it means to do 'media' for clients in this newly empowered world.”