OMD has promoted current national strategy leader Gavin Gibson to the role of chief strategy officer APAC as former Atomic 212 MD Ian Czencz takes over the vacant Australian position.
Gibson has led the strategic community across Australia since 2017, with OMD adding he has been "instrumental" in the evolution of the agency's offering and strategic product.
OMD Australia CEO Aimee Buchanan praised Gibson for an "amazing job" during his two years in the chief strategy role, adding that the agency recognised his "strategic leadership" as a key driver behind the agency's growth.
"His strategic leadership has resulted in sustainable business growth and award-winning work for OMD Australia. Gavin deserves this recognition for his incredible contribution and his promotion to regional chief strategy officer," Buchanan says.
"We wish Gavin all the best and look forward to continuing to work with him in his APAC role.”
Gibson starts his OMD APAC role in October.
Czencz will join the agency from 1 July following his departure from Atomic 212 earlier this year, after leading the agency for less than 12 months.
In his new role, Czencz will lead the national strategy team and be responsible for the over-arching communications strategy across OMD Australia’s client base.
Czencz has more than 21 years’ experience in the Australian media industry. Starting his career with J. Walter Thompson (JWT), Czencz went on to work at one of Australia’s first strategy-only media agencies, The Media Palace.
He later joined Match / Blue 449 (now Spark Foundry) in 2007 as chief strategy officer and partner. Czencz has also been appointed to the OMD Executive Committee and will report into Buchanan.
“Ian is one of the leading strategic media specialists in Australia today. His experience of building ground-up strategic capabilities into industry recognised examples is almost unparalleled. With a strong team in place at OMD, we are very excited to work with Ian on driving growth for our clients," Buchanan says.
This is the second major executive restructure to take place within the agency this year.
In March, OMD revealed a new leadership structure for its Sydney office, which sees the appointment of dual managing directors and the addition of a national chief operating officer role.
OMD Sydney general manager Kim Hamilton, was promoted to a joint managing director role, alongside Laura Nice.
OMD Australia has also had a formidable 12 months of new business with recent wins including the $40m Super Retail Group account, the consolidated Asahi Beverages account, the $70m Suncorp account, as well as being home to brands such as GIO, AAMI, and APIA, as well as Belong, The Fork and Activision.
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