Chris O’Keefe shifts from Perth to run UM Melbourne, Bingwa expands responsibilities

O’Keefe

IPG Mediabrands has announced a shuffling of it management deck with the group’s Perth managing director Clive Bingwa taking on responsibility for Initiative Perth as Chris O’Keefe switches to UM as managing director of its Melbourne office.

O’Keefe was Initiative’s Perth managing director and replaces Ivo Kavelj who is moving over to a role with Magnaglobal, the Mediabrands division charged with oversight over the group’s trading and forecasting.

“Chris O’Keefe has been an outstanding leader for our Perth agency during the past four years,” said Lee Leggett CEO of Initiative.

“He has evolved the agency’s skill sets to totally embrace the latest communications platforms. He has been highly successful in attracting new clients and latterly formed a close partnership with Clive Bingwa in introducing clients to the broader Mediabrands offering.

“Having worked closely with Chris, I know he will be a big success in his new role.”

Bingwa

Bingwa joined IPG Mediabrands Perth in January this year. He had previously been a partner and national media director of 303Lowe, where he worked for almost 16 years.

“Clive has become very familiar with the Initiative Perth operations through his close working relationship with Chris,” said Leggett. “There will be a seamless handover of duties and I am looking forward to working with Clive into the future.”

Chris O’Keefe is a long-term IPG Mediabrands executive. Prior to taking on the managing director role at Initiative Perth, he was chief investment officer for UM Australia and prior to that he was managing director of Initiative Sydney.

Nic Christensen 

Nic Christensen

Nic Christensen worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2016, in roles including deputy editor and media & technology editor. He is former media writer for The Australian and has also worked as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph and senior producer for Radio 2GB.

topics Chris O'Keefe Initiative Lee Leggett UM

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Comments: 6

Jackson Toohey 10 Jul 15

Congratulations both. Seems like every day there is a senior management change at Mediabrands or GroupM…

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Ben S 10 Jul 15

Welcome to Melbourne O’Keefe’s

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Daniel Isaac 10 Jul 15

Congrats Chris! – great news.

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FP-IPG 10 Jul 15

Congrats! The FP juggernaut keeps rolling on.

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so 13 Jul 15

what’s Ivo doing?

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Nic 13 Jul 15

Bingwa is a legend

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