WPP has hired Stacey Shelly as global client leader on the Procter & Gamble Co. account across Grey and the holding company broadly, replacing the recently retired Debby Reiner, who had decades-long ties to the giant marketer.

Shelly was most recently executive VP and global client lead at Publicis Groupe’s Zenith Media, where she established the first global hub for Coty Consumer Beauty, overseeing a team of 200 across 34 markets, and also led relationships with Ralph Lauren and Luxottica.

She has a big role to fill for WPP amid big changes affecting the P&G relationship. Reiner, who retired last month, was a longtime steward of Grey’s P&G business who had worked closely with the company’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard for decades, going back to his time on CoverGirl and the P&G cosmetics business.

Reiner helped build Pantene into a billion-dollar global brand, though P&G ultimately spun off other Grey accounts she worked on, including CoverGirl and Clairol, to Coty.

Her retirement at the end of June, planned for months according to a person familiar with the matter, came just before departures of Grey Global Creative Chairman John Patroulis and Grey New York Chief Creative Officer Justine Armour. Reiner's retirement also followed news that Michael Houston, CEO of Grey for the past five years, is moving to a new role as CEO of WPP U.S. That new role also includes serving as “executive sponsor” of P&G within the holding company. Ajaz Ahmed will be CEO of AKQA Group, of which Grey is a part.

The WPP and Grey relationship with P&G faced strains in late 2020 when WPP CEO Mark Read announced plans to merge the agency with AKQA. Pritchard was said by people familiar with the matter to be upset by the news and sought assurances the Grey brand would survive the merger.

Notably, Grey retained its P&G business in the aftermath and even picked up some work, such as the recent U.S. launch of Voost dietary supplements handled by Grey Midwest, the outpost of the agency opened near P&G headquarters in Cincinnati on Reiner’s watch. Grey also handles Gillette, Venus, Braun, Febreze and Downy for P&G, the last as part of the Woven Collaborative in conjunction with Publicis Groupe agencies.

Javier Campopiano, who remains as worldwide creative chairman of Grey, was a key player while at Saatchi on the 2018 “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl campaign for P&G.

P&G declined to comment on Shelly’s hiring or the Grey relationship, with a spokeswoman saying the company doesn’t comment on personnel changes at its agencies. But Pritchard last month in Cannes did laud Grey’s work on Venus as part of his presentation on creativity.

Earlier in her career, Shelly was executive VP and worldwide senior director at BBDO, leading the Johnson & Johnson consumer business. During her time at BBDO, according to her LinkedIn profile, she previously worked with P&G on Oral-B, up to 2008. But she was not working on that brand when P&G moved it to Publicis in 2010 or on Gillette and Venus when P&G moved them from BBDO to Grey in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

“Stacey brings two decades of singular global marketing experience that transcends both advertising and media,” said Houston in an internal memo. “She has built leading blue-chip brands in [fast-moving consumer goods], retail, beauty and fashion. Along the way, she’s contributed to the success of P&G brands including Crest, Oral-B, ThermaCare and Vicks.”

He added: “We are opening an exciting new chapter in our six-decade partnership with P&G squarely aimed at seizing the future."