Ex Ikon boss Dan Johns joins Mediabrands
Johns, left, and Tajer
Just weeks after his controversial ousting as CEO of media agency Ikon, Dan Johns has reemerged in a senior role with Mediabrands.
Johns was fired from Ikon in March along with national digital director Ellie Rogers, people and people and culture director Leonie Kerley and other staff in a move which took the market by surprise.
Johns has since been replaced by MindShare boss James Greet who is due to start his new role at Ikon later in July.
Today Mediabrands – parent company of media agencies UM, Initiative, MBThree and soon-to-launch local operation of BPN – said that Johns will take on a group commercial director role at the company reporting in directly to executive chairman Henry Tajer.
He will also join the Mediabrands Australian board.
“We are thrilled to have Dan join the IPG Mediabrands family,” Tajer said in an announcement. “Dan’s experience and perspective on our marketplace will accelerate IPG Mediabrands’ abilities to leverage the opportunities we see coming to the communications sector. It will allow us to move faster and develop more future-proof solutions for our client base as well as for our own business.”
According to the announcement: “Johns’ primary roles as group commercial director will be to work closely with Tajer and the business unit leaders in IPG Mediabrands Australia to expand capabilities, new business, new products and the inter-discipline collaboration between the 10 businesses that make up the group.”
Johns has been on gardening leave since leaving Ikon. He said: “It is rare to have the opportunity to step back and take a truly objective perspective of our industry.”In doing so, it was clear to me that IPG Mediabrands is not only the agency group with the most momentum, but the group with the clearest and most progressive view of the future. Importantly, the IPG Mediabrands’ vision is backed by a structure that allows for swift decisions and investments into emerging areas and a talented, supportive and aligned leadership team that make things happen.”
Since Tajer took the helm of Mediabrands, he has aggressively developed the group beyond the traditional media agency world, including brand entertainment agency Ensemble, the acquisition of mobile operation Mnet, creative agency Airborne and the growth of search operation Reprise. Tajer will be a panellist on the final keynote session of Mumbrella360 next week, Mumbrella Question Time. Johns began a similar process at Ikon of generating new stream of revenue by offering clients additional services.
Johns starts on August 1.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Henry – what a great hire.
Dan – all the very best, good to see you back.
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Great hire for IPG, congratulation’s Dan.
I’m sure that there will be a lot of media owners out there holding their breath as to whether we see a new cash savings model being rolled out across UM, Initiative and their associated agencies.
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Congrats Dan, very well deserved and congrats Mediabrands
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