I’m excited to announce that WPP has appointed me into a newly created role of Executive Director, Marketing Technology Australia, and New Zealand. I start today located at 1 Kent Street, Miller Point in Sydney.

WPP AUNZ is the leading marketing communications services group in Australia and New Zealand. No other group comes close to our scale and breadth of capability comprising 5,500 people working across over 80 companies in over 170 offices.

WPP starts 2019 following twelve months of unprecedented growth and client investment in technology services, and my new role aims to provide a valuable resource for all WPP AUNZ Group agencies to access best in breed technology and programme delivery capability.

I am excited to be joining at a time of new WPP vision to be a creative transformation company, bringing together creativity and expertise in technology and data – with the purpose of building better futures for its people and clients.

WPP’s future offer will cover four areas: communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

• Communications
  Focuses on advertising, content, media, public relations and public affairs, and healthcare.
• Experience
  Reflects the growing need of clients to create new brand, product and service experiences.
• Commerce
  Allows WPP to expand its growing omnichannel commerce business and its work with brands to help them succeed in marketplaces such as Alibaba and Amazon.
• Technology
  Underpins WPP’s work with both CMOs and CIOs to build and operate marketing technology that supports their consumer- and customer-facing activities.

My role is to focus on establishing an interface for all WPP agencies, connecting with global WPP network shared service models, plus evaluating and filling any resource gaps at each of the Group’s agency brands – while leveraging existing capabilities. I look forward to collaborating with many of my colleagues in the expanding MarTech and AdTech industry.

This role is about providing guidance and support to our agencies today while future-proofing our client relationships. It’s about being technically astute and deeply aware of digital, technical, scientific and business model innovations. Connects these to business benefits and human values is essential. As a transformational professional, I also know how much it is about a ‘felt experience’. To be able to bring the worlds best transformation tools, processes and techniques to maximise the benefits and minimise distress.

In other words, evidence-based decisions to understand and apply the role of evidence to all our client work and solutions.

I have been working at the intersection between business strategy, creativity, technology, data, marketing, and digital customer experience for more than twenty-five years, living and working in the United States, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore and it’s always great to be based in Sydney.

I will be calling on my agency side experience working with Omnicom and more recently Dentsu Aegis, and client-side roles with Microsoft, Newscorp and Telstra who have taught me so many life lessons to use straightforward language without lessening complexity.   Able to bring order and simplicity to ambiguity and complexity.

I feel very privileged to return to Australia and join an organization dedicated to creative transformation. I have always been passionate about how brands and businesses combined with technology can create participation with consumers to enhance the customer experience and advance the users purpose.