Australian media veterans Henry Tajer and John Sintras are set to relocate from the US to Australia in time for Christmas.
Given periods of gardening leave, AdNews understands that Sintras may be back in market after the New Year and Tajer, who is likely to have six months or even a year of gardening leave, may not be back in market until as late as May or June.
It remains to be seen where the well-known execs will land with industry scuttlebutt suggesting Tajer will head to media owner side and will likely pop up on a board or two.
Tajer left his Sydney-based role as global COO and executive chairman of IPG Mediabrands Australia for the global CEO IPG Mediabrands gig in New York in March 2015. Just months after the move Tajer plucked Starcom Mediavest Group Australia chairman and director global experience product John Sintras to join him in the Big Apple as president, global business development and product innovation at IPG Mediabrands.
In a move that shocked many in the market, Tajer left the business in May this year after two years in the top job. News of Sintras' exit soon followed in June as did Australian Travis Johnson, who was global president of Mediabrand's mobile offering Ansible, formally known as Mnet.
Almost as soon as he was in the job Tajer placed a number of Australian execs in high profile global and US roles, including Mat Baxter, who is now global CEO of Initiative. Of the batch of talent who relocated Baxter is still in his role and is thought to be “very safe” in his position.
See: Tajer's Aussie brain drain
Global director of media intelligence systems at IPG Mediabrands Charles Godbold is also still stateside.
It remains to be seen if Johnson will stay in the US or return to Australia.
In a shock move revealed by AdNews in May 2015, GroupM’s heir apparent to John Steedman, Danny Bass, appeared to have turned down the Australian CEO role at WPP's media buying giant to become CEO of IPG Mediabrands in Australia - taking the reins from Tajer.
Did you catch our video series with Tajer?
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