GroupM restructures data and tech

GroupM’s global chief executive, Christian Juhl, has realigned the business to offer more consistent technology across the group, according to Campaign.

GroupM’s four media agencies are: Essence, MediaCom, Mindshare and Wavemaker. The [m]Platform was created in 2016 as a suite of media planning applications, data analytics and digital services with all the media agencies’ and businesses feeding data into it.

Almost 5,000 people currently work at [m]Platform. Of these, about 4,000 working in search, social, programmatic and digital advertising operations will become an independent team within Group M’s shared services centre. Most of the remaining people will join Essence’s innovation unit, 2Sixty, with a new tech arm planned.

GroupM said the changes would not impact on clients as the reorganisation was purely internal.

There are a number of senior management changes: Mark Patterson, GroupM’s Asia-Pacific chief executive moves to New York as chief operating officer; Colin Barlow, global chief operating officer, becomes global president of GroupM Services; Andrew Shebbeare, co-founder of Essence, will become acting chief technology officer in charge of the new tech innovation unit; and Brian Gleason, who led GroupM’s performance businesses, becomes chief commercial officer.