McCann Worldgroup has promoted Alex Lubar as president of McCann North America, filling the role Devika Bulchandani held before leaving McCann after a 23-year stint to become CEO of Ogilvy North America.

Lubar’s previous role as president of McCann’s Asia Pacific region will be filled by Ghassan Harfouche, adding onto his responsibilities as group CEO of the Middle East Communications Network, which is McCann’s and the Interpublic Group of Cos’s partner network in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

The agency is also promoting Ji Watson to CEO of McCann Worldgroup Japan, while retaining her role as CFO of McCann Worldgroup APAC and representative director of McCann Worldgroup Japan. She is replacing Antony Cundy who departed earlier this year.

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Since joining McCann in 2012 Lubar has held multiple positions across the agency. Before taking on his role at the helm of the Asia Pacific region two years ago, Lubar was the CEO of McCann London and prior to that served as global chief marketing officer.

“Alex, Ghassan, and Ji have each demonstrated an impressive ability to drive client growth and creative effective marketing solutions before and even during the difficult period of the pandemic,” Bill Kolb, chairman and CEO of McCann Worldgroup, said in a statement. “What they’ve accomplished with their teams in their respective regions, including expanding our integrated communications offering to clients, has been a key element of how we’ve continued to build our business as we prepare for the era of increased client activity when the pandemic ends.”

Harfouche joins Prasoon Joshi, chairman of McCann Worldgroup Asia and CEO and chief creative officer of McCann Worldgroup India, in overseeing the APAC region’s operations of 26 offices in 13 markets.

The latest executive moves at McCann follow a series of significant shifts earlier this year. Earlier this month, Ad Age reported that FCB Health and McCann Health would be realigned as a new health network called IPG Health. In June, Laura Simpson was promoted to president and chief intelligence officer of McCann Truth Central. And earlier this year, the agency promoted Singleton Beato to the new role of global executive VP and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.

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