He replaces Clare Fernando in the managing director’s role. She has been given the new role of executive director within the division.

Carr was previously at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as general manager for customer analytics.

Mediabrands Australia’s executive chairman Henry Tajer said: “Analytics is an area of intense importance to our future, how competitive we are as a group and for our clients’ businesses. In this area we compete with a raft of professional service firms, research companies and creative agencies to name a few, as well as the expected competition from media agencies in their various forms.

“Chris’ appointment is designed to place us directly in competition with the best businesses in this complex field, because as we all know the real value in data is how it is managed and leveraged to create actionable insights and solutions.

Carr takes up his new position in early April.