John Perriss, the chairman of Zenith Media, has landed the top job
at Zenith Optimedia Group, the new holding company formed by Zenith and
Optimedia.
Perriss, who becomes the chief executive, heads a global management
board dominated by Zenith directors.
Simon Lloyd, the chairman of Optimedia, takes the role of deputy
chairman and will head the group in Europe.
Steve King, Zenith's chief executive in Europe, is promoted within
Zenith to be the worldwide chief executive and takes the role of
director of business and strategy development of the holding
company.
Rich Hamilton, Zenith's US chief executive, will run Zenith Optimedia in
the US. Zenith's Antony Young takes responsibility for Asia and John
Taylor, Optimedia's operations director, becomes the director of
strategic resources. Maurice Levy, the president of Publicis Groupe, and
Michael Bungey, the chief executive of Cordiant, complete the line-up
with places on the board.
Zenith and Optimedia will continue to run as separate networks retaining
their own management, clients and offices. Perriss said job losses were
unlikely if targets are met next year.
Discussions will move on to how Zenith and Optimedia can work more
closely in each local market, on shared learning across systems,
research and database management. Its use of increased buying power, as
the new group becomes the world's fourth-largest media services agency,
must be considered.
Levy said: "The management team headed by John Perriss and Simon Lloyd
is the very best in the industry and is a clear guarantee of the success
of the new company."
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