Brian Lesser
GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl has exited the WPP media investment arm, the holding company announced Wednesday. InfoSum’s former CEO Brian Lesser is set to replace Juhl, who will take on a new position with WPP as president, corporate development.
Lesser returns to GroupM, where he led all of the agency’s North American business from 2015 to 2017. He will officially take over in September.
Juhl has been GroupM’s global CEO since 2019, after six years as CEO of Essence. His departure comes as GroupM undergoes a massive restructuring in North America to simplify its offering for clients. Marketers are increasingly looking for integrated, data-powered solutions to help them navigate ever-changing market complexities—an area where GroupM has lagged competitors, marked by several years of account losses, leadership departures and layoffs.
Juhl recently told Ad Age that GroupM’s greatest strength is still scale—or, its ability to leverage its client roster of top marketers with formidable spending power to secure a price advantage for clients. But the agency network is trying to figure out how to leverage that, particularly in North America, where agencies have moved more toward integration than in other regions.
Lesser has a strong tech background, an area GroupM is in need of strengthening as it looks to restructure. He most recently was chairman and CEO of customer data infrastructure provider InfoSum, a role he took up in 2020. His goal there, Lesser told Ad Age in a previous interview, was to grow InfoSum from startup to “midsize fast-growing company.”
InfoSum announced Lesser’s departure from the company last week, naming Chief Operating Officer Lauren Wetzel its new CEO. In the statement, InfoSum said it has grown into a powerhouse organization trusted for its data clean rooms by 100 global companies including DirecTV, Samsung Ads and News Corp.
Lesser previously spent 10 years with GroupM, including founding the media network’s audience data and tech platform Xaxis, now part of GroupM’s larger tech spine Nexus. He left GroupM in 2017 for AT&T, where he became CEO of a new advertising and analytics business.
“Brian is one of the industry’s most highly regarded executives with a track record of success in data- and technology-driven marketing,” said Mark Read, CEO of WPP, in a statement. “GroupM, its agencies and its brilliant people are in many respects the engine of WPP. Brian not only knows GroupM inside-out, but also has a strong vision for the future of the business. We are delighted to welcome him back to WPP.”
In a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, Juhl said he will be focused on strategic growth and corporate development “more broadly” for the holding company.
“It’s been a privilege to lead GroupM over the last five years, and I’m proud of the way we’ve transformed our business for the future, delivered consistent year-over-year growth, and pursued our vision to shape the next era of media,” he wrote. “Brian’s product vision, experience, and knowledge of our business make him the right person to take what we’ve built together and push it even further.”
Juhl succeeded Kelly Clark as GroupM global CEO in 2019. Juhl was global CEO of GroupM agency Essence, now EssenceMediacom, before taking on the larger role five years ago.
Juhl first joined Essence in 2013 as the CEO of North America and was promoted to global chief executive a year later. He led Essence’s acquisition by WPP in 2015 and is a veteran of Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish, which has since been folded into its Sapient division. Juhl spent nearly 10 years leading Razorfish’s West Coast operations in San Francisco before leaving for Essence.
