The media arm of British advertising behemoth WPP has appointed Angela Steele as its U.S. chief client officer, a newly formed role.
Steele joins from WPP’s French rival Publicis Groupe, where she served as CEO of Publicis Collective U.S. and helmed the holding company’s dedicated Verizon unit.
WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser announced the appointment in a memo sent to staff this morning and obtained by ADWEEK.
Steele “will assume leadership of a group of U.S. teams to continue to drive high-performance growth for those clients,” Lesser wrote.
A spokesperson for WPP Media confirmed the appointment to ADWEEK.
Steele will take the post officially on January 16, according to the memo, and will work closely with the company’s other U.S. chief client officer Nancy Hall, though the two will oversee different client portfolios, the company said. She will report directly to Lesser.
Steele has worked in the ad industry for more than two decades. Prior to her four-year tenure at Publicis, she was U.S. CEO of Dentsu’s Carat, elevated to that role after implementing an audience-driven planning and activation strategy and overseeing client accounts for leading brands like General Motors, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.
Earlier in her career, Steele helped grow Ansible, a specialized mobile marketing agency within Interpublic Group (IPG), to a mid-sized global network. (Ansible was later folded into Reprise, which was subsequently absorbed into IPG Mediabrands’ Kinesso—the brand names of which are all defunct following Omnicom’s $13.5 billion takeover of IPG).
In his memo, Lesser emphasized the experience Steele will bring to the company, saying: “Angela has spent her career leading organizations through significant change, particularly where technology, data, and platforms have redefined how brands grow and connect with consumers. She has built and led teams across agency and client environments, translating innovation into measurable outcomes in leadership roles at Publicis, Dentsu, and IPG.”
He noted that Steele’s work with major brands will also prove “instrumental in strengthening our existing client relationships and identifying opportunities for growth.”
A critical juncture
WPP Media is still searching for a North America CEO, a post that has been empty since the departure of Sharb Farjami in early October.
Steele’s appointment comes at a critical juncture for the agency, which last year suffered major client losses, including the media businesses of Coca-Cola in the U.S. and Canada, Mars, and Paramount, all to French rival Publicis.
