Saatchi & Saatchi CSO joins whiteGREY
Saatchi & Saatchi’s Australian chief strategy officer has been nabbed by whiteGREY, replacing the CSO role left vacant by Simon Wassef last month.
Iona Macgregor joins the agency with over two decades of creative strategy experience.
Macgregor
She takes the role of chief strategy officer, working across national and APAC clients, and will also join whiteGREY’s executive leadership team.
CEO at whiteGREY, Lee Simpson, said the team is “really excited to welcome Iona to the agency”.
“This is a critical role for us and one we’ve considered carefully,” Simpson continued. “Iona’s experience will bring fresh strategic leadership to our business and our clients, adding to the depth of talent and capability we have across brand, communications, CX and media strategy.
“Iona is an innovative thinker suited to a creative agency with strong technology heritage, and I’m excited about the impact she will make.”
Prior to Saatchi & Saatchi, Macgregor held roles at Publicis Communications and Marcel Worldwide, leading strategy teams across brand, user experience (UX) and social.
In 2015, she co-founded Marcel Sydney, alongside David Nobay and Andrew Baxter, which then was absorbed by Saatchi & Saatchi in 2020.
Her previous clients include Ampol, Tiger Beer, OPSM, Cartier, Heineken, Arnott’s and Westpac Group’s St George.
“This industry has been talking about transformational change for as long as I can remember,” Macgregor said. “But it takes a proper merge of creative, strategy, technology expertise and genuine care to deliver ideas that will set brands up for sustainable growth.
“The team at whiteGREY are just awesome,” she added.
“I believe they’ve got a unique combination of all the skills and passion required to navigate this challenging market for their clients and I can’t wait to get started.”
Macgregor replaces former whiteGREY CSO, Simon Wassef, who left in early September for Clemenger BBDO.
In his newly created role of chief strategy and experience officer, Wassef is set to lead strategy and customer experience across the Clemenger business, with his remit also including overseeing business growth and talent development.
Wassef replaced Jacqueline Witts in 2022.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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