He is to replace Phil Cazaly, who will retire from the company in summer. Runnacles will report to managing director Michael Beasley, who took up his role in November last year.
Runnacles joins from the Sytner Group, the luxury car dealership chain, where he was director of e-commerce. Prior to joining Sytner, he was at design company Qudos. He left the BMW Group in 1999, when the German motor company still owned Rover. He has also worked at Volvo and overseen Rover's Land Rover, Mini and MG brands.
Cazaly was responsible for hiring WPP Group's Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R in 2000 to handle Jaguar's 拢12m UK advertising account.
In March 2001, Ford, the owner of Jaguar, consolidated its $125m (拢88m) global advertising account into Young & Rubicam. Prior to this, it had been split between Ogilvy & Mather in North America and J Walter Thompson in Europe and other markets. Ford is one of WPP's biggest client.
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