RAVI RAO TAKES OVER AT GROUPM MENA
Mindshare boss is new CEO as Filip Jabbour leaves.
GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has named Ravi Rao CEO at GroupM MENA. Previously CEO at Mindshare MENA, Rao has 30 years’ market experience and 11 years within the GroupM network. He replaces Filip Jabbour, who was appointed in 2015 when GroupM launched in the region and has taken the decision to step down, said GroupM. Other agencies in the group include Wavemaker and MediaCom.
Rao is tasked with “driving the strategy and growth of GroupM and its media agencies in the region as the group focuses on helping clients grow their business through unrivalled marketing advantage via talent, scale and technology,” said WPP. He will be building on the work led by Jabbour over the last four years when GroupM’s media agencies won new clients – most recently Mars, Adidas, YUM (Pizza Hut) and Huawei – and launched new service offers in trading, digital and data. The statement added: “Over the last several years, [m] PLATFORM, GroupM’s proprietary data management platform, has been scaled and the business has streamlined structures across key business areas and markets to offer further advantages to clients.”
“An experienced leader, Ravi will bring expertise and vision, which can help drive further benefits for our clients in the MENA region,” said Dominic Grainger, GroupM EMEA CEO. “This new appointment demonstrates our ambition to strengthen our client offering, building on the work led by Filip and the management team. We will continue to develop innovative market-leading solutions that drive additional value for our clients across areas such as brand safety, content and proprietary technology and tools. Ravi is well placed to lead on these advances after building Mindshare into a strong, diversified agency helping clients drive growth. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Filip for his contribution since the launch of GroupM in the region four years ago, helping to lay strong foundations.”
“Having spent a large part of my career at Mindshare, I am delighted to be taking on this new role,” said Rao. “Clients increasingly require services beyond media planning and buying, and I’m looking forward to creating more vibrant, next-generation solutions to delight our clients and grow their businesses.”