Publicis Sapient appoints Claire Rawlins as national managing director
Publicis’ digital transformation agency, Publicis Sapient has appointed Claire Rawlins as national managing director, effective immediately.
Rawlins will be based in Sydney and is replacing Sarah Adam-Gedge, who left in March. Emma Scales, managing director APAC, has been covering the duties in the interim.
Rawlins joins Publicis Sapient after most recently being founder and CEO of Digital Natives Advisory, and strategic advisor to the president of Adobe in the APAC region.
Claire Rawlins
Rawlins said: “I’m thrilled to join the Publicis Sapient team and be a part of a forward-thinking, global company that over the last 30 years has pioneered so many digital businesses and experiences by combining strategy, product, experience, engineering and data to lead in the digital space.”
She also said that digital business transformation is critical across all sectors, and that she is looking forward to partnering with Publicis Sapient’s clients and the team in Australia.
Publicis Sapient CEO, Nigel Vaz said: “Claire brings with her deep experience in driving digital and technology transformation and cultural change. In her position, she will empower our teams in Australia to develop bold, innovative ideas that successfully reimagine businesses for the digital age.”
As national MD, she will be responsible for unlocking growth for clients, “providing them with crucial solutions to survive and thrive in the digital age while increasing their efficiency through digital innovation”. She will also lead the industry, capability and corporate teams in Australia, aiming to advance the agency’s ambitions to make client impact at scale, according to Publicis Sapient.
Vaz continued: “She is a leader with a demonstrated ability to help businesses transform by creating next-generation customer experiences and propel large-scale organizations to become more customer- and employee-centric using technology and data. Claire will no doubt make a tremendous impact as part of our international leadership team.”
Rawlins experience to date has seen her working with organisations within the financial services, telecommunications, retail and aviation sectors, as well as working with startups. This has included companies such as Salesforce, IAG, Fidelity International and BNP Paribas.
In 2019, Publicis Sapient absorbed legacy brands, SapientNitro, Razorfish and 2Datafish as part of a global rebrand, a move the agency called a “shift directly towards what clients now require”. Boston-based Sapient was acquired in 2014 by the Groupe.
Last month, holding group Publicis Groupe released its second quarter financial results for 2021, which saw continued growth after a strong start to the year, exceeding Q2 2019 results.
Got a tip?
Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
Linkedin