Michael Rebelo has been named Publicis Groupe CEO across Australia and New Zealand as Matt James relocates to the UK for a global Zenith role.
Rebelo, formerly the CEO of Publicis Communications, will now oversee both the creative and media side of the business.
He will be supported by Publicis Media chairman John Preston and Publicis.Sapient managing director Sarah Adam-Gedge.
Rebelo is a Publicis veteran, starting his career at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997 and holding a number of agency leadership roles in Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, London and Australia. He was promoted the Publicis Communications CEO role in 2017, coinciding with a wider restructure of the Publicis' leadership team.
The integrated role comes as Publicis pushes towards its Power of One model that sees creative and media agencies work together to service clients. Rebelo is tasked with driving greater integration across the group, attracting talent and improving its resources management across disciplines and solutions.
Publicis Groupe CEO across APAC, Middle East and Africa Loris Nold says he is confident in Rebelo's ability to accelerate in Australia and New Zealand.
“Our strategy relies on two very important pillars: a solution-led approach and a country-led approach. This is to ensure that we accelerate on our global game changers while driving acceleration at a country level," he says.
"The Power of One has generated some great examples of collaboration in Australia and New Zealand and it has transformed the way we work with our clients while bringing great opportunities to our people."
Nold also congratulated James for his appointment to global brand president of Zenith announced earlier today.
"Matt has been an incredible partner, working seamlessly with Mike, Henri, Pauly, Phil and I, and I can’t think of a better leader to take on this exciting new role," he says.
Rebelo says he's honoured to be taking on the role and thanked James for his contribution to the group.
“The Groupe Leadership Team and our agency leaders have created a genuine rhythm across the organisation when it comes to applying the ‘Power of One’ principles to clients, people and opportunities," he says.
"We have set good foundations in Australia and New Zealand; there’s still more hard work ahead of us, but the possibilities we’ve been creating and will continue to create for our clients and agencies is currently unmatched in the market. That makes my new job uniquely exciting.”
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