Armitage will take on the newly created role, leading a central team of business planners working across Mindshare’s global Unilever, Rolex, Kraft, Nike, Diesel and HSBC businesses.
He will report to Marco Rimini, worldwide head of Business Planning, and will also support the network’s community of regional business planners working in 22 European offices. He will be based in Mindshare's London office.
Rimini said: "Gary is an original. I know his talent and experience will help us build a network of business planners to give our clients the best advice, built on all the data we now have access to."
Armitage previously held the role of joint head of planning at Blue Hive, WPP's agency offering for Ford of Europe, where he led a planning department created from Ogilvy account planners, Wunderman digital planners and Mindshare business planners.
Prior to that, he was strategy director at Naked Communications, working on clients including Unilever, Diageo, Kimberley-Clark and Dyson.
Before Naked, he was head of brand for Aviva and was also at Lowe London.
Armitage said: "Marco's invitation to join his team of planners, whose analytical and strategic skills identify the real commercial challenges facing our clients, then deliver communications strategies to overcome them, was an offer I couldn't refuse."
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