His new role sees him leading new strategic development and client experience team
Havas Media Group (HMG) has promoted Greg James to global chief transformation officer. He will begin the new role immediately.
James joined Havas more than 15 years ago and most recently served as HMG’s global chief strategy officer. His ideas shifted the media group’s focus on new areas, including the network’s Meaningful Media proposition and its media planning system Mx. James was also key to HMG joining the Conscious Advertising Network, and his thinking is behind group initiatives like the Social Equity Marketplace and BIPOC Media Network.
As CTO, James will lead the strategic development and client experience team. The unit focuses on transformative strategic growth initiatives for the agency and its clients, and is one of four newly-created groups that ladder up to HMG Global CEO Peter Mears. The three other hubs include product operations and investments, people experience and finance and legal and IT.
James’ promotion comes as HMG is growing, having recently added Unilever, Dolce&Gabbana, International Airlines Group and others to its client roster.
A simplified reporting structure
Creating the four units simplified HMG’s reporting structure, James told Adweek. It resulted in fewer employees reporting directly to Mears (now four, down from seven). Mears’ direct reports lead the four units, fostering a tight collaboration between all of the group leads.
Hub leaders will work closely together to manage group initiatives, and James’ hub will be especially intertwined with the product operations and investments hub.
“Given that clients often ask agencies to help them break down silos, we took a look at ourselves and said, ‘look, we could do more in this area, too.’ And so we’ve really streamlined the management at the top of our business to free up talent, make us more agile and get more diverse talent more quickly in front of more clients,” said James.
Predicting what’s next
The biggest difference between his new role and his previous role as strategy lead, James told Adweek, is that his new role brings him closer to clients.
James’ team will focus on leading client conversations around transformation and then collaborating with the product operations and investments group to inject the learnings from clients and from the broader market into HMG‘s technology products. For example, HMG rebuilt its media planning and buying tools to make them more modern. James ensured the technology was created with media ethics in mind and the ability to recommend equitable media investment opportunities.
“To ensure that we are continually elevating the client experience, investing in our products and innovating for the future, transformation must be a constant state of being,” said Mears in a statement. “With Greg’s new role as chief transformation officer and in collaboration with our global leadership team, we are structurally and culturally transforming to capitalize on collaborative, effective networked behaviors that create value for our agency and clients.”
