New York: GroupM, the media investment group of WPP, has appointed Sandy Welsch to its Global Commerce Executive team as Executive Director for Global Commerce Partnerships and Enablement, effective from 16th July.
Welsch recently served as VP, Omnichannel Platforms at Flywheel, scaling the business and overseeing partnerships, ad-tech, and retail media initiatives. Since joining in 2017, he led the programmatic and omnichannel media efforts, established the first programmatic media team, and contributed to the expansion of Flywheel’s omnichannel marketplace vision through partnerships and technology integrations.
In his new role, Welsch will spearhead GroupM’s global commerce partnerships strategy, collaborating with retailers, tech, and platform partners to enhance client advantages in commerce. He will work closely with Choreograph’s commerce product team to integrate partner capabilities into Open Media Studio and bolster the company’s commerce technology position.
Samantha Bukowski, GroupM’s Global Head of Commerce said, “Sandy is a commerce expert through and through and brings a tremendous amount of technical proficiency, experience, and strategic thinking to our team. His vision for leading brands into the next era of commerce is deeply aligned with our own, and his relationships with key partners will facilitate a new level of innovation that will drive our clients’ growth in this rapidly evolving field.”
Welsch said, “The commerce landscape is moving so fast that unless you’re executing now against a sound vision for the future, you’re falling behind. What’s so impressive about GroupM is its ability to combine its global scale with a culture of agility and rapid development to move nimbly and stay ahead. We have all the pieces to not just help brands and manufacturers win in commerce today, but to innovate and lead in a way that disproportionately outpaces the market for our clients well into the future. Everything I’ve seen from the team is tremendously impressive and undoubtedly the blueprint for the future of commerce. I’m thrilled to join the team and put my expertise to work to take us to the next level.”
Welsch has joined GroupM’s commerce executive team after WPP was recognized as the industry leader in commerce services. GroupM also announced partnerships with Shalion and Incremental, integrating retail data and technology into their media and marketing strategy.
