Brown, who spent the first 10 years of her media career at DMB&B and then Bartle Bogle Hegarty, told Media Week she was looking forward to returning to the agency world.
She said: "It's such an exciting place to be at the moment and it's changing at such a rapid pace - especially in the digital space."
Brown added that her role would be to "leverage the group's resources" to enhance the work that Steve Williams and Morag Blazey, OMD and PHD chief executives respectively, and their teams have already achieved.
At IPC, Brown was the managing director of IPC tx (TV weeklies division), IPC+ (content and licensing division), and IPC Direct. She joined the publisher 10 years ago when Sly Bailey, then IPC's chief executive, appointed her as group marketing director, leading a team of 90 marketers across all IPC divisions.
Brown's board-level appointment at IPC and her experience of due diligence during the publishing company's sale to Time Warner in 2001 impressed OMG chiefs.
A source said: "Of all the candidates they saw, she was the one who really wanted to do it and is passionate about the companies and brands OMG UK represents."
Brown, who takes up her new position in July, will report to Colin Gottlieb, chief executive of OMG EMEA. On her appointment, he said: "We wanted someone who has considerable experience of the media craft, a proven track record of running a large complex business and who has the drive and enthusiasm to inspire. Philippa ticks all the right boxes."
The UK brands under Brown's management will include OMD UK Group (OMD UK, Manning Gottlieb OMD, M2M, OMD International, OMD Digital, OMD Metrics and Fuse) and PHD UK Group (PHD, PHD North, Rocket, PHDiQ, Drum and PHD International) as well as Omnicom trading unit OPera.
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