GroupM's current head of digital, John Miskelly, has been promoted to chief digital officer of the group.
The move was announced today, alongside news that Xaxis operations director Timothy Whitfield is to take on a newly-created role of director of technical operations for GroupM, and that Xaxis' GM Esther Carlsen has been promoted to MD.
Miskelly's step up will see him take on additional responsibilities as he oversees the group’s digital investment on behalf of clients. Miskelly has been at group level for close to two years after spending more than five years with MediaCom.
He joined MediaCom from a job as trading manager at Starcom MediaVest London. He arrived in Sydney as MediaCom's digital business manager before moving into a role as director implementation planning and investment, then head of digital implementation planning and investment, prior to his last role.
Miskelly said the promotion was “a great honor” and he looks forward to the challenge.
“We currently have market leading digital capabilities across the agencies, Xaxis, GroupM Connect and Plista. The goal will be to further strengthen these products and services to take our clients to the next level in digital thinking,” Miskelly said.
GroupM’s global programmatic media and technology platform, Xaxis, has also had a shakeup.
In addition, Xaxis operations director Timothy Whitfield will take on the newly created role of director of technical operations for GroupM, reporting to Miskelly.
GroupM says it will initiate a “One Voice Tech” strategy in order to ensure that all technology vendors that GroupM engage with, across the group, work seamlessly together.
Rounding of the trio of new moves, Esther Carlsen has been promoted to managing director, from her current post of general manager.
Under her leadership Xaxis has expanded to a team of more than 30 programmatic specialists, across multiple disciplines, while also launching a suite of new marketing products - including Xaxis Radio, Australia’s first programmatic product for buying digital audio ads, and Xaxis Sync, which allows advertisers to sync TV ads with their digital advertising running via Xaxis.
Esther said: “I’m very proud of the work we have done over the past two years at Xaxis, developing what I believe to be a compelling solution for our agencies, clients and industry partners. I’m excited to be leading the business into what still promises to be a challenging, ever changing and therefore exciting future.”
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