International: MediaCom has appointed Josh Krichefski as Global Chief Operating Officer, in addition to his role as chief executive of EMEA.
The hiring of Krichefski is the first appointment made by Nick Lawson, MediaCom ‘s global CEO, since taking charge of the WPP media agency in July. Krichefski became EMEA CEO in September 2019. He was previously CEO of MediaCom UK.
Commenting on the appointment Krichefski said: “I’ve always been inspired by the people at MediaCom and our ability to deliver work that transforms our clients’ businesses. My focus will be on continuing to drive our culture and capacity to do so.”
“He really understood our culture right from the start,” Lawson said, adding that “I can’t think of anyone better” to take on the global COO role.
“I need somebody at a global level who can support us on all of our global clients and teams and marketing and new business. Josh’s promotion will come as no surprise to the many clients and colleagues who have worked with him over the years. Josh is a genuinely world-class act. He brings forward-thinking ideas and rich expertise to our clients, helping to continually grow and improve their brands‘ performance.”
“For our people, Josh’s experience of fostering and encouraging an incredible ‘people first’ culture, that has diversity and inclusion at its heart, will prove invaluable to our global network.” He added.
Lawson and Krichefski, who are both British, will also work on “ambitious plans for cross-company integration with WPP and [its media buying subsidiary] Group M”, the company said.
MediaCom, which has its headquarters in London, has traditionally been strongest in EMEA, where it had almost 13% share among media agencies, according to a 2019 estimate by COMvergence. MediaCom’s clients include Adidas, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Sky and Tesco. The network had a share of only about 5% in North America, 9.5% in Asia-Pacific and 11% in Latin America.
