Christina Hanson has been named CEO of OMD USA, succeeding John Osborn, who spent over 30 years with Omnicom, including the last five as CEO of OMD USA.
The media company in a statement said Osborn is “stepping back from the agency world” to focus on his work with non-profit organizations.
“Nothing says more about the impact that John has had at OMD than the way he led the agency through the COVID crisis,” Ralph Pardo, CEO, Omnicom Media Group North America said in a statement. “His experience was instrumental in assuring the safety and well-being of our people, maintaining a high quality of service to our clients, and ensuring we didn’t lose focus on strengthening our culture.”
A decision on a replacement for Hanson, OMD’s global chief strategy officer, hasn’t been made yet, according to a spokeswoman for OMG.
Hanson, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Hong Kong and the U.K., has spent more than half of her 22-year career with OMD, holding various strategy roles for the media company in the U.K. , Europe, Middle East and Africa, and in the U.S. In 2012 she branched out of the Omnicom network to become executive director, U.S managing partner at WPP's Mindshare. She returned to Omnicom in 2016 as a global managing partner at OMD leading the Sony Pictures Entertainment business, before eventually taking on her global chief strategy officer role in 2018.
“At a time when the demand for strategic solutions that have a measurable impact on media ROI has never been greater, Chrissie’s experience will be an invaluable asset to our clients and our teams, and will advance our global mission of elevating the agency-client relationship from transactional to transformational,” OMD Worldwide CEO George Manas said in a statement.
This is the latest executive change across Omnicom and its media division. In March, Ralph Pardo, formerly the CEO of Hearts & Sciences, replaced Scott Hagerdon as CEO of OMG North America. In November 2021, Daryl Simm, previously the CEO of OMG, was named the president and chief operating officer of Omnicom as part of a succession plan for Omnicom’s CEO John Wren.
In the same month, Florian Adamski was named the new CEO of OMG, and his previous position as CEO of OMD Worldwide was filled by George Manas, who previously served as chief media officer of OMD U.S.
