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Mediacom CEO Mark Pejic leaves agency

Pejic

Pejic: departing

The boss of Australia’s second largest media agency Mediacom has abruptly departed.

After four years leading the WPP-owned agency Mark Pejic’s departure was confirmed this morning with MediaCom Asia Pacific CEO Mark Heap “standing in” until a successor is appointed.

The departure leaves the positions of CEO, finance director, Sydney managing director, general manager, and head of insight all vacant. GroupM is also searching for a CEO following the decision of John Steedman to step down in the next few days.

“Mark has been a committed and loyal employee and his passion, energy and talent will certainly be missed. He has played a central role in the success of MediaCom in the Australian market, and we are grateful for his contribution. We will be making an announcement in the coming weeks regarding his successor,” said Heap, in a statement.

The changes come months after it emerged that the agency had submitted inflated claims to some clients on the TV audiences its campaigns had delivered. As a result, clients Foxtel and IAG then shifted their accounts to sister agency Mindshare.

The agency also admitted it breached the policy of its own parent company GroupM by selling back to clients free or heavily discounted advertising time given to it by TV stations.

When the problems first emerged, a dozen staff departed the agency.

After OMD, Mediacom is Australia’s largest media agency with an advertising spending power of more than $1.2bn (RECMA) on behalf of clients including Westpac, Fonterra, Carlton United Breweries, Yum Brands and Procter & Gamble.

Senior regional MediaCom bosses are in the country at the moment with an all staff meeting called for 9.30am today.

Recent weeks have seen Sydney MD Geoff Clarke resigning after nine years with the agency, and GM Katy Websdell, who leads the Westpac account, moving to sister agency Maxus as Sydney managing director.

David Reid, who served as finance director of Mediacom for eight years, was confirmed to have left the agency yesterday.

Mediacom and GroupM has insisted that none of the departures were related to the recent controversy, which embroiled the agency in November of last year. Mumbrella does not allege that any of the executives who have since left the media agency were involved in wrongdoing or were aware of misreporting on TV audiences or the charging of clients for “valuebank” inventory.

In the wake of the controversy Mediacom saw key clients Foxtel and IAG move their accounts across to sister agency Mindshare. It has also had to pay significant sums, thought to be in the millions of dollars to accounting firm EY for it to conduct an examination of its reporting on TV audiences.

Nic Christensen 

Update 9.25am: GroupM has now issued the following announcement.

The announcement:

MediaCom today announced Mark Pejic has resigned as Chief Executive Officer to pursue other interests.

Mark has been with MediaCom since the agency’s formation in 2004 following a merger with Zenith Media, where he was Managing Director. Mark began his career at JWT in 1989 and spent nine years in various media positions at the agency before moving to George Patterson Bates and then Zenith Media.

He took up the reins as MediaCom CEO in 2012 after a three-year stint as COO, and was instrumental in growing the business during that time.

An announcement on the successor as CEO will be made within the coming weeks. In the interim, Mark Heap, MediaCom Asia Pacific CEO, will be standing in.

Mark Heap, MediaCom APAC CEO, said: “Mark has been a committed and loyal employee and his passion, energy and talent will certainly be missed. He has played a central role in the success of MediaCom in the Australian market, and we are grateful for his contribution. We will be making an announcement in the coming weeks regarding his successor.”

Mark Pejic said: “I have enjoyed a rewarding 11 years with MediaCom, both in Melbourne and Sydney, and enjoyed the opportunity to work with great people and great clients in both cities. It’s now time to move on and pursue a different opportunity. I wish my successor and my friends at MediaCom every success in the future.”

No further external comment will be made regarding these changes at this point in time.

11am update: For legal reasons, Mumbrella has chosen not to publish a number of comments received on this story

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