Wunderman Thompson is continuing to build its senior team with the appointment of Publicis Sapient chief Neil Dawson to drive the network’s strategic leadership as global chief strategy officer.
Dawson started his career in market research before joining Euro RSCG (now Havas) as a senior planner. Four year later he was appointed executive planning director at TBWA, where he was reponsible for building the agency’s planning department.
Following spells at HMDG and Enter, Dawson joined SapientNitro – which was then renamed Publicis Sapient in the UK – where he led large scale digital transformation projects across multiple industries.
His appointment at Wunderman Thompson sees Guy Murphy, the current global CSO, take on a new role as CSO for global clients.
Dawson reports to global chief executive Mel Edwards, who said: “Neil has a blended background of digital transformation, combined with brand strategy, which is the perfect fit for our business and more importantly, what our clients are asking of us. Neil’s passion for consistently connecting creativity to commercial effectiveness makes him the right person for this role.”
Dawson added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to join a world-class agency which is bringing creativity, data and technology together to inspire growth for brands. Wunderman Thompson has a strong leadership team with a clear mission, supported by a compelling set of capabilities spanning consulting, communications, customer experience, commerce, technology and data. In these times clients need partners to help them navigate the path to growth by reinventing their consumer engagement models, Wunderman Thompson is well-placed to deliver this.”
Earlier this year, Wunderman Thompson recruited former Publicis Sapient chief operating officer Ewen Sturgeon to the role of CEO for Europe and South Africa, taking over most of Edwards’ responsibilities left vacant since her promotion to global boss.
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