WPP AUNZ has made two long-term staffers redundant in a restructure of the advertising group’s communications functions.
Gone are the duo Rebecca Tilly and Sandra Renowden, who shared a role working remotely, one of them living in Adelaide and the other in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Tilly has been with the company 13 years and Renowden almost 10. Their tenure dates to before the merger of STW with WPP in 2016.
WPP AUNZ said: “As part of a reorganisation of WPP AUNZ’s communications and marketing function, we have restructured a number of existing roles within the team.
“As a consequence of this process, we can confirm Rebecca Tilly and Sandra Renowden have left their positions in Group Content and External Communications.”
The move follows the appointment in September last year of Toby Hemming as head of communications and marketing, Australia and New Zealand.
Hemming, working closely with CEO Jens Monsees, has a new group role leading internal and external communications and marketing programs.
He has become the conduit to Monsees for journalists and has recently brought on a consultant to help with external communications.
Monsees, a former senior executive at Google, has since his arrival at WPP AUNZ in October 2019 been reorganising the company with fewer brands, and a change in culture and focus.
The majority shareholder, the UK-based global holding company WPP, has made a bid to take 100% of WPP plc, paying $230 million to soak up the 38.5% of the company it doesn't own.
This is in line with WPP’s global strategy of simplifying its structure. This is all about efficiency and stretching the overheads of a global business.
Currently, Australia is structured and works in a different way to the rest of the WPP empire, although Monsees has been relentlessly working at simplifying the local operation.
The plan as presented by the UK company: “... three clearly defined operating models by country, significant consolidation of local agencies, simplified organisational structures, standard platforms leveraging our scale …"
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