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Ben Shepherd returns to the consultancy world at Bain & Company

Ben Shepherd has resurfaced at global management consultancy firm Bain & Company, several months after Mumbrella revealed he had left independent agency Thinkerbell.

He now takes on the role of vice president at the consultancy on a full time basis, according to his LinkedIn, after previously holding the role of director at PwC’s CMO Advisory.

Shepherd was general manager at Thinkerbell for ten months, after joining from CHE Proximity in September last year.

Shepherd

Previously head of strategy and innovation at Omnicom Media Group agency, OMD, he joined as part of the wave of PwC’s high profile hires as the consulting firm moved into the CMO advisory and marketing space in 2017, after it added Russel Howcroft the year prior. 

Both Bain & Company and Shepherd were approached regarding the nature of the role, but have not made a comment to Mumbrella at the time of publishing, however Shepherd has the role listed on his LinkedIn.

Spending two years at PwC, Shepherd then joined CHE Proximity at chief media officer in May 2019, spending just over a year at the Clemenger Group agency before tendering his resignation. 

When joining CHEP, Shepherd commented on the similarities between himself and then-CEO of the agency, Chris Howatson’s approach to creating value for marketers, highlighting the consultancy-approach.

“Chris and I share the same idea of the opportunities within media and the best way to approach it in order to create material value for marketers. We have a model that is unlike any other in market and one that will deliver strategic rigour, consultancy capabilities as well as operational and delivery excellence.”

He also said at the time that the media landscape had become needlessly complicated.

Following Shepherd’s departure, CHEP saw a series of further departures, followed by a period of transition with CEO Chris Howatson and national CCO Ant White announcing that they would be leaving the business to set up their own agency, Howatson + White in November. The agency has since changed to Howatson + Company following White’s departure, with the circumstances still remaining unclear, due to “legal reasons”.

A week later after leaving CHEP in July 2020, he was revealed to be joining Thinkerbell, which he again left a in June this year.

Shepherd writes a regular column for Mumbrella, with his most recent here.

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