Brave Bison brings in WPP Open executive to drive AI

Media, marketing and technology company Brave Bison has raided WPP to beef up its AI-driven offering, across both its agency and media brands, as part of a major expansion strategy.

Vaughan Eveleigh has spent nearly four years as product director of AI for WPP Open, the network’s flagship AI-powered marketing operating system.

He takes up the new role of vice-president of product and technology, a cross-agency role designed to align product and technology capability more closely with the company’s commercial and operational priorities.

In the role, he led core product development across integrated AI services, helping to transform client service delivery across WPP’s divisions. He previously led the development of 28 AI-powered tools across commerce content, media and consulting services, using generative AI to reduce product content creation time.

Before WPP, he held senior product roles at River Island, where he was accountable for the customer experience across web, apps, contact centre and stores, and Selfridges, where he led the Selfridges.com digital replatform, launched and scaled the retailer’s iOS app to 22% of the digital business within 12 months, and introduced international delivery to 130 markets.

Reporting to executive chairman Oli Green, Eveleigh will be responsible for overseeing product and technology across Brave Bison’s agency services businesses, which include SocialChain, Engage Digital Partners and MTM, as well as the media, search and technology practice which operates under the Brave Bison brand.

He will be responsible for delivery of the cross-business product and innovation roadmap, accelerating platform adoption, and ensuring technology investment delivers measurable business and client impact.

The appointment comes alongside the promotion of director of AI and creative Matt Garbutt to the role of group director of product innovation. Together Eveleigh and Garbutt will design, build and scale new AI tools and capabilities across the business, building Brave Bison’s proprietary AI tools, including on-demand audience insights platform AudienceGPT and AI-powered paid social creative engine AdStudio.

They will also work closely with the individual agency leaders to build bespoke technology solutions for clients and internal teams, ultimately helping the business move quickly from technology opportunity to operational delivery and client value.

Oli Green said: “Vaughan brings a rare mix of AI product expertise, technical depth and commercial understanding, which is exactly what we need as Brave Bison enters its next stage of growth.

“His experience building AI-powered products at WPP, alongside his track record transforming digital and commerce experiences for major retail brands, makes him ideally placed to lead our product and technology strategy across our company. This is a new role with a clear mandate: to connect our technology investment directly to business performance and client impact. We’re delighted to welcome him to Brave Bison.”

Eveleigh added: “Opportunities like this are genuinely rare. This is a brand-new leadership role with real scope to shape priorities, define how we work, and build the product and technology roadmap from the ground up.

“Brave Bison has a strong and differentiated position across media, social, education, commerce and technology, and the AI opportunity here is significant. What stood out to me was the way the business is already leaning into AI with real energy and intent, not just as a talking point. The combination of ambition, culture and pace made this an exciting move, and I’m looking forward to helping turn that momentum into measurable impact across the group.”

Brave Bison brings in WPP Open executive to drive AI

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