Toby Hemming goes from WPP AUNZ

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 16 June 2021
 
Toby Hemming

Toby Hemming is departing WPP AUNZ, caught up in an avalanche set off when the UK-based holding company took 100% of the local group, after less than a year in the top communications role. 

The head of communications and marketing at the advertising group has been made redundant, according to industry insiders. WPP AUNZ had no comment.

He was hired to run communications for the ASX-listed company. That part of his role disappeared when WPP AUNZ was delisted in April.

Hemming's departure completes a series of moves to restructure the communications function at WPP AUNZ. 

Earlier this month WPP AUNZ appointed Nadia Fidler as PR manager and Laura Backhouse as internal communications manager.

They had been reporting to Hemming but the new roles effectively covered his remit.

The two replaced long-term staffers -- Rebecca Tilly and Sandra Renowden -- who were made redundant. Tilly had been with the company 13 years and Renowden almost 10. Their tenure dated to before the merger of STW with WPP in 2016.

Hemming started at the advertising group in September last year, working closely with the then CEO Jens Monsees. 

He brought more than two decades of strategic communications leadership to the role, including founder and managing director of APAC communications consultancy Bold, and was the head of communications at News Digital Media in Sydney and at BSkyB in London.

Monsees’ departure last month, to be replaced by a country manager for the global WPP, had a kick-on effect on the prospects of other executives and the structure of the local Australian business. 

The winners of WPP’s takeover of Australian operations are the current heads of agencies. 

Leadership of the advertising group and its 3,800 staff in Australia has firmly devolved to those who run individual brands. 

Looking at other parts of the world, WPP country managers have more of a support role than overall responsibility for the business. More a local spokesman and a provider of central services rather than a business driver. 

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