John Sintras out of global role at IPG Mediabrands as fallout begins from Tajer’s exit
Less than two months after it was announced IPG Mediabrands’ global CEO Henry Tajer was leaving the role to return to Australia, one of his hand-picked lieutenants, John Sintras, is also “transitioning” out of the business.
John Sintras “transitioning” out of IPG Mediabrands global role
Mumbrella understands Sintras left the business a month ago – shortly after Tajer departed after executives pushed back against changes he introduced to the business – but IPG has worked to keep his departure under wraps.
IPG confirmed that Sintras was no longer involved in a leadership role at the business in a short statement, but would not confirm if he was leaving the business entirely, although it is understood his office in New York has been empty for several weeks.
“We can confirm that he’s no longer actively involved in the leadership of the company as we work through a transition period,” the confirmation said.
The company used similar language in an internal email when Tajer exited.
Sintras was amongst a handful of Australian media agency executives who were hand-picked by Tajer when he was named as global CEO in 2015.
Henry Tajer to return to Sydney
Others to join Tajer’s “entourage” included former UM CEO Mat Baxter who became global chief strategy and creative officer, MNet Boss Travis Johnson, who became global head of mobile, and Cadreon’s Marc Lomas who SVP of Programmatic East but later departed to join Amazon.
Other hires under Tajer included Starcom Mediavest’s Di Richardson, poached to become chief strategy officer of UM’s US operations, and former Faulkner Godbold co-founder Charles Godbold who was hired to lead global media auditing for IPG Mediabrands.
After Tajer’s move to New York he set about restructuring the business to become more agile and entrepreneurial.
However, it is understood some of the changes have been resisted by US executives resulting in the current situation which now may have claimed both Tajer and Sintras.
Insiders have described the situation at IPG as “watching a new regime being put in place and eradicating everything that Henry put in place”.
A number of internal divisions created by Tajer are also understood to have been dissolved with further changes expected in coming weeks.
“There is a lot of fallout that is about to happen,” one source said.
Sintras is one of Australia’s most respected media agency executives who rose from a media role at Leo Burnett to become chairman of SMG Australia and director global experience product.
He was also a longstanding chairman of the Media Federation of Australia.
What a strange story this has been over the past 18 months. One has to feel for the families who have been displaced and will now have to come back to Aus in such a short time. Strange days indeed.
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New York is a tough environment full stop. And no one does office politics better than the Americans. Welcome to the big dance boys.
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“Displaced” is a bizarrely emotional word to use to describe the departures of Tajer and Sintras. They aren’t displaced. They aren’t refugees. They were quite happy to “displace” their families to go to NYC to take the money shot. Now it hasn’t worked out, they can apply for other roles in NYC if they wish to stay there.
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I wonder who is leaking all this information to the press in Australia to discredit IPG, no evidence or facts exists to support anything was resisted by US execs, seems both side of the story would make a balanced article
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Hmmm …
Sounds like they gave IPG Mediabrands a brain transplant, but the body rejected it.
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Wonder what this will mean for Mat Baxter and co who are still there…
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John is both a gentleman and an extraordinarily talented individual, sadly it seems neither of these characteristics matter in global agency politics. I hope we are lucky enough to have him back on our shores soon, we would be very lucky to have him.
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The main business of this industry in New York isn’t doing good work. In fact, mediocrity is the market, politics are the main thing, and you can have a long career without doing anything good.
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Anyone that worked with John knows that he is a good guy, has vision but is also a great politician. Shit happens and alliances matter. Great people are let go from organizations all the time. Look at the blood bath at Starcom.
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I would suspect the leak is from the ‘troubled team’ as Sintras’ news was supposed to be kept under wraps by IPG. Looks like there would be more dirty linen coming in the news
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Who knew that success in the Australian media market isn’t 1:1 scalable to the global marketplace? These guys couldn’t get much done in New York, other than nonsensically centralizing then decentralizing the agency’s offerings and cutting 50+ jobs over their short tenure. They failed in every sense of the word and are heading back to Oz with their tails between their legs. Good riddance.
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Life is to short to ponder ones supposed failures , it’s all about the journey and where that journey takes you . New York is just another journey full of egocentric maniacs ……. your lucky John you can come home yo the fabulous place called Australia ……. howdy mate
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