His brief will be to make savings and create greater synergies across the group, which includes not only the UK's fourth-largest agency but Publicis Dialog and Publicis Blueprint, its direct marketing and customer publishing specialists.
He becomes the first major hiring made by Tim Lindsay, the newly appointed group chairman, since his arrival at Publicis. The move will renew the pair's working relationship, which began at Bartle Bogle Hegarty and continued at Young & Rubicam.
Cramphorn, who will join the group board and report to Lindsay, had been working as a consultant. He left Banc, which he co-founded with Robert Bean in 1996, in June last year - shortly before the agency went into liquidation.
His arrival at Publicis is in line with the group's aim to develop its "solution-neutral" offering to clients and to ensure that its divisions do more than merely work together on a few pieces of business.
Cramphorn was one of the first employees of the then fledgling WCRS.
He later set up BBH's creative services department, before going on to run the same agency's below-the-line operations. In 1991, he followed Lindsay into Y&R, where he was the deputy managing director.
Lindsay said: "Mark has the most fantastic background and can manage the relationships with outside suppliers that others don't have time for. He's not only very alive to the opportunities that new technology offers but makes people feel good about what they are doing."
Cramphorn said: "I believe Publicis' approach to its creative product is relevant to today's market and its holistic positioning is something I can help exploit and extend."
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