OMD eliminates regional president roles in streamlining move

Omnicom Group media agency OMD USA is cutting five senior executive positions, including its regional presidents and chief marketing officer role, in a streamlining move. In a statement to Ad Age confirming the cuts, the agency said the regional roles date back to OMD’s creation in 2002 when the agency was formed by fusing the media departments of Omnicom agencies in New York (BBDO), Chicago (DDB) and Los Angeles (TBWA), with senior executives from each of those shops taking on a president title. “It was a model that made sense when the regional offices were more dependent on their origin agencies and local geographies for business. However this added layer is no longer consistent with how clients expect agencies to operate today–borderless, frictionless, and fluid,” the agency stated. “Moving forward, the regional teams will seamlessly connect into the client leadership team under the direction of Scott Downs.” The regional teams will report directly to OMD USA CEO John Osborn. The jobs being eliminated include OMD East President Patty Sachs; OMD West President Greg Castronuovo; and OMD Midwest President Lisa Bradner. OMD is also cutting two positions in what it says is an effort to eliminate redundancies: the chief marketing officer job, held by Laurel Rossi; and a managing director role at OMD Create, the agency’s innovation and prototyping unit, now held by Kerry Perse. The changes come amid other organizational and leadership changes at Omnicom Media Group, which houses OMD, PHD and Hearts & Science. Hearts & Science founder Scott Hagedorn in February was promoted to CEO of Omnicom Media Group in North America. He replaced Page Thompson, who retired. Erin Matts, previously the CEO of Annalect North America, was named CEO of Hearts and Science in the U.S., while George Manas took over as chief media officer of OMD U.S. Omnicom has also integrated digital specialty functions at programmatic agency Accuen and performance marketing shop Resolution Media covering about 600 people into Hearts and Science, OMD and PHD. Resolution will remain a standalone agency to service performance marketing clients and the Accuen brand will live on outside the U.S. Explaining the integration on an April 16 earnings call, Omnicom Group CEO John Wren said: “When these services were in their formative stages, we [needed] dedicated units with real subject matter experts to support our media agencies. Today, these services are no longer a specialty. They are at the core of how we work with our media clients.” Contributing: Judann Pollack, Brian Braiker

OMD eliminates regional president roles in streamlining move

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