Rebecca Zemunik to head up Razorfish as MD
Ten months after the agency brand was brought back from retirement, Publicis Groupe has selected Rebecca Zemunik to head up Razorfish as managing director.
Zemunik has been with Publicis Groupe for six years, having recently been a part of the launch team for sustainability consultancy, Salterbaxter. Her previous roles within the group span a stint as MD at Digitas Australia, as well as time leading business development, marking and alliances at Publicis Sapient.
She will start in the new role in October, when she returns from her sabbatical, taking over the remit left empty by former Performics Mercerbell CEO Jason Tonelli. Tonelli was named CEO of Publicis’ newly refreshed performance agency brands, Performics and Razorfish in May last year, but only held the role for several months before succeeding Nickie Scriven as CEO at Publicis media agency, Zenith, in August.
In the interim, Razorfish’s leadership team will be supported by Helge Gruettke in his capacity as group chief client officer at Publicis.
Publicis Groupe ANZ CEO, Michael Rebelo said: “It’s always great to be able to look from within and elevate the leadership talent within our Groupe. Bec [Rebecca] is an accomplished digital business leader with multi-faceted experience having worked at consultancies and agencies, after starting her digital career client side. I’m looking forward to seeing Bec bring her energy and expertise to Razorfish – joining the talented team of data, technology, creative and media experts, as they chart their next phase of growth as a digital marketing transformation business.”
Razorfish Australia was initially merged in 2016 with SapientNitro to form SapientRazorfish, then two years later the Razorfish brand was dropped entirely with the digital transformation agency rolled into the Publicis Sapient brand, which continues to operate to this day. The retiring of Razorfish, alongside SapientNitro and 2Datafish was then labelled as a “shift directly towards what clients now require”.
In 2016, Publicis Groupe reported a €527m (U$736m) net loss in 2016, admitting to “serious issues” at Razorfish, which ultimately led to the group packaging the brand with Sapient, which it acquired a year prior.
On her appointment, Zemunik said: “I feel very fortunate to work for such a progressive and flexible employer like Publicis that is so supportive of the growth of its people. I cannot wait to join Razorfish and partner with the newly formed leadership team who are an incredible group of people dedicated to their craft and clients. Razorfish is an iconic global network that has and will continue to transform brands through digital marketing.”
Zemunik’s industry experiences extends 25 years, having previously been general manager of Reactive, at the time Australia’s largest indie digital agency. The agency was subsequently acquired by Acenture, where Zemunik led Zemunik led the financial services go-to-market team and built the Adobe practice. She started her digital career in marketing roles at Telstra and Optus.
The Razorfish leadership team has been further bolstered by a number of key promotions, including Sheridan Turner who moves from the role of client partner – creative, to head of client services. Customer partner – media, Zac Godkin is now head of performance, while COO George Sarris is chief marketing transformation officer, and Nikki Garvey has been promoted to senior strategy director. Vaughan Townsend continues in his role as executive creative director.
Have your say