WPP AUNZ hires BMW 's global digital strategy chief as new local CEO

WPP AUNZ has confirmed BMW’s global VP of digital strategy will join the team as CEO and managing director from October, a move designed to ramp up its tech and transformation credentials.

Jens Monsees boasts of a career in marketing and branding in his native homeland of Germany, and has spent the last three-and-a-half years as corporate VP of global digital strategy, corporate planning and product strategy at BMW Group. The role has seen him spearheading business and cultural transformation into a more customer-focused and data-driven organisation.

Prior to this, Monsees was global CEO of digital marketing at Arvato AG, which is part of the Bertelsmann Group; brand director for automotive, consumer goods, good retail and healthcare at Google German; and a marketing and brand executive at Mondelez and Schwarzkopf & Henkel.

He officially takes up the WPP AUNZ role on 1 October 2019, replacing John Steedman, who has been acting in the interim CEO position since last October. The company said Steedman will continue as executive director and chairman of media investment management at WPP once Monsees has settled into the leadership role.

WPP AUNZ chairman, Rob Mactier, said Monsees was chosen after an extensive global search.

“This appointment underlines our new positioning as a leader not only in creative advertising, branding, communications and media, but in technology, data and business transformation,” he said. “Jens has a strong reputation for building brands and leading change in several industries. He brings rich experience and client-side insights to the role, at a time when the changing needs of our clients are paramount.”

“When we relaunched WPP as a creative transformation company last December, we promised to put great ideas, technology and data at the heart of our new client offer,” WPP CEO, Mark Read, continued. “Australia and New Zealand are among the most exciting, vibrant and forward-looking markets in the world.

“The AUNZ team has WPP’s full support as it embarks on the next stage of its journey under Jens’ leadership.”

In a statement, Monsees said he was impressed by WPP’s creativity, dedication and emphasis on performance as well as clear ambition to be the ‘go-to’ partner for clients.

“In this dynamic environment, the potential for WPP AUNZ, as well as for our partners and clients, is tremendous,” he said. “I’m absolutely convinced that together, we will be able to build stronger business models and stimulate growth by harnessing our deep creative and digital expertise.”

Related: WPP recruits Sunita Gloster as first chief customer officer

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