Peter Vogel named new ‘NewCo’ CEO; Maxus boss Mark McCraith to exit

Pippa Chambers
By Pippa Chambers | 18 August 2017
 
Peter Vogel.

Peter Vogel is set to return to Australia to take up the CEO spot at the merged Maxus and MEC entity, known as GroupM’s ‘NewCo’.

The management shake-up sees current CEO MEC Australia James Hier appointed as chief growth and product officer for NewCo, reporting to Vogel. CEO of Maxus Australia Mark McCraith will exit the business.

In June GroupM revealed it was merging the global operations and teams of two of its leading media agencies MEC and Maxus. Some MEC and Maxus staff were said to be rattled by the surprise merger news at the time.

Vogel, who had been the MEC APAC CEO since mid-2015 and prior to that was MEC AUNZ CEO for more than six years, will lead a new Australian and New Zealand NewCo management team, which will be finalised over the coming weeks. Vogel's role becomes effective in January 2018. 

Global CEO of MEC and GroupM’s ‘NewCo’ Tim Castree, said in addition, Vogel will also serve as CEO for the new company’s South East Asia Hub.

“We’re merging Maxus and MEC to form a brand new billion-dollar revenue media content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now,” Castree said.

“With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Peter’s leadership, I am confident that we have the right team in place to truly blend the best of MEC and Maxus and make NewCo in ANZ a formidable future-facing agency.”

In Hier's new role he will be responsible for the top line growth of NewCo through new business and the delivery of “world-class product” for clients across media, technology, and content. He will also be responsible for the marketing of NewCo, including continuing his involvement with the TV series Marketing Dividends on Sky Business with the AANA.

“Mark McCraith the current CEO of Maxus Australia will unfortunately be leaving us,” the statement said.

“Mark will work with Peter and James over the coming weeks to help establish the new leadership team for NewCo. Mark has been the CEO of Maxus for the past two years and has done a great job in building the Maxus brand and culture in Australia.

“Mark has built exceptional relationships and partnerships with clients like Jetstar, Hungry Jacks, Danone and lead the establishment of Westpac’s media agency – Media Lab.”

GroupM’s portfolio will now comprise three global media agency networks being Mindshare, MediaCom, and the new company – "each with more than one billion dollars in annual revenues", globally, the network says.

Client conflict-wise, the group says there are very few client conflicts between MEC and Maxus and all of these are being worked through directly with the clients. See: "Tigerair or Jetstar could be up for pitch following MEC Maxus merger".

More to come.

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