Stephanie Douglas-Neal. Credit: UM
Newly appointed UM Australia CEO Stephanie Douglas-Neal believes the agency’s next phase of evolution depends on increasing clarity, belief and momentum quickly.
Named CEO after an up and down 2025 for UM and amid the broader transformation underway since Omnicom acquired IPG in November, Douglas-Neal inherits a business of several hundred people and a responsibility she does not take lightly.
Her mandate is as much about restoration as it is reinvention.
In her first sit-down interview since taking the role, Douglas-Neal did not waste time getting to the point.
"We need to get velocity back, velocity with our people, clients, and the market," she told AdNews.
Velocity, in Douglas-Neal's framing, is not a commercial target.
"Momentum is cultural before it's commercial," she said.
Douglas-Neal said people create momentum when leadership removes uncertainty.
"There's a really tight cycle where belief gets you cultural momentum, that gets you momentum with your clients, that gets you momentum externally," she said.
That belief in the people around her shapes everything about how Douglas-Neal is approaching the job.
Rather than restructuring or repositioning, her early focus is on sharpening clarity and defining what she calls "the UM way".
The “UM way” is about how the agency shows up, what good looks like and how consistency is built across a business serving clients across a large number of industries.
It is a broader brief than it sounds.
"We're an incredibly diverse business," Douglas-Neal said.
"What success looks like for a federal government team … is very different to what success looks like for a global commercial client team."
The early work has been deliberate.
A recent off-site day began translating expectations into something tangible and lived across teams, rather than handed down from the centre.
"I want everyone to feel they're building something too," Douglas-Neal said.
UM has historically carried a reputation for developing future leaders, something Douglas-Neal wants to re-anchor in the agency's identity.
For her, clarity is not a by-product of growth but the precondition for it.
The external environment is making that work more urgent. Clients are under pressure and Douglas-Neal is direct about what that means for agencies.
"They read headlines, and their boss has a question," she said.
The result is a shift in what clients want.
"Clients have gone from wanting channel specialists to wanting business partners," Douglas-Neal said.
She added that clients want agencies willing to reassess recommendations as market conditions change, rather than defend previous decisions.
"Clients want us to re-evaluate, not justify," she said.
"We need more clarity, more commercial thinking and more courage.”
Trust, she adds, is built through consistency and simplicity. She is equally open about what can erode that trust.
"It's about clients not worrying that you'll create problems they then have to explain internally," she said.
Reflecting on a difficult 2025 that included the loss of major accounts Optus and Lion, Douglas-Neal is direct and unsparing about the lessons and what comes next.
"It was tough for the team, which is why clarity and belief are the number one priority," she said.
"Uncertainty knocks people."
For Douglas-Neal, that moment pointed back to something fundamental.
"Take your learnings, really take them. Don't shy away from them, don't make excuses," she said.
“It's when people get too close to them that they don't really hear them. Take your learnings, build your plan, get on with it."
She is equally clear the capability to move forward is already there.
"It comes back to the simplicity of storytelling, really understanding what our clients want and building belief and clarity around it," she said.
Douglas-Neal believes agency distinctiveness comes from philosophy, approach and culture, not just capability.
She said UM’s differentiation also includes capabilities such as research developed with Saïd Business School.
"We don't just respond to what's asked in a brief, we look across every opportunity for growth," she said.
"That includes owned, shared and paid channels. It's not just paid media."
As AI and automation make more decisions algorithm-driven, that kind of perspective becomes harder to replicate and more valuable as a result.
"Full colour thinking means using every channel well, programmatic, precision, innovation, but also stepping back to focus on what truly drives business outcomes," she said.
Douglas-Neal’s leadership style follows the same logic. It is built on connection, to the business, to its people and to the questions she does not yet have answers to.
Where she is most disarmingly candid is on her own greatest risk in the role.
"My biggest risk is impatience," she said.
"I care deeply about the business and have strong ambition for it, but I need to make sure people are brought along on the journey.
“They need to understand their role in it and feel supported and inspired."
Stepping into the CEO role has also surfaced areas she wants to develop.
Douglas-Neal describes herself as strongly client-focused and said the role has pushed her to think more deeply about transformative product and roadmap development.
That is where the Omnicom network becomes practical rather than theoretical.
"What I love about the network is being able to call people like Alex Pacey, Mark Jarrett, or Kristiaan Kroon and say, 'I'm not sure on this,'" Douglas-Neal said.
That connectivity reduces isolation in decision-making and brings in expertise faster when it’s needed.
"If a client wants perspective from another market, our people should be able to connect with someone globally and get that perspective quickly," she said.
It also means she is not navigating the early months alone.
"I don't feel like the 'new girl' because Omnicom knows me well enough that I can comfortably ask for perspective on where our gaps are and how other agencies are approaching things," she said.
Douglas-Neal is also clear about what separates agencies that sustain momentum from those that plateau. It has less to do with structure and more to do with mindset.
"Where I see agencies start to plateau is when they stop challenging themselves," she said.
"They're no longer interested in what the rest of the market is doing."
The market, Douglas-Neal is quick to add, is not the benchmark she has in mind.
"The benchmark is us, how we were yesterday and how we keep improving," she said.
That restlessness, she argues, is what momentum actually feels like from the inside. And when agencies have it, it compounds.
"When agencies have it, it becomes self-fulfilling," she said.
The CEO role at UM also demands a dual mandate.
"UM needs someone who is commercially sharp and pragmatic, but also culturally energising," Douglas-Neal said.
Success, in her view, will not be measured in financial terms alone.
"We need to take the learnings, build the plan, and move forward," she said.
"Commercial momentum matters, of course, but I see that as the result of cultural momentum and client momentum.”
Much like others entering a CEO role, Douglas-Neal has been working on a multi-year roadmap, but felt a three-year window was too long and has opted instead for a two-year plan.
"We need velocity now, velocity with people, clients and the market," she said.
When asked what success would look like after those two years, Douglas-Neal said it will look like people who feel proud and energised to work at UM, clients who see the agency as a genuinely transformative partner, and commercial results that flow from cultural strength.
The through-line, she said, is the same as it is on day one.
"We need to get velocity back," she said.
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