Updated: Edelman shakes-up leadership team as Michelle Hutton handed wider regional role
Edelman Australia is replacing Michelle Hutton as chief executive after she was handed responsibility for regional client and growth functions as part of a wider shake-up of its senior leadership team.
The restructure has seen group managing director of Edelman Australia, Susan Redden Makatoa, given the additional role of APAC head of corporate, while managing director of integrated services in Australia, Fern Canning-Brook, will take the newly created role of executive vice president of integrated client solutions for APAC.
Michelle Hutton has spent more than decade with Edelman
It was not immediately clear if Hutton would retain her CEO role in the shake-up, but Edelman later confirmed to Mumbrella that Hutton will relinquish her duties.
“Michelle will remain CEO of Australia until a successor has been named,” the company told Mumbrella.
Edelman said Hutton will take on “larger regional responsibilities” that include oversight of Australia and 11 other APAC markets.
Hutton returned to Australia from the UK – where she was MD for global clients – in 2019 to take the dual role of chief executive of Edelman Australia and regional chief growth office. She took the APAC chair role in November last year.
Hutton first joined the agency in 2010 as CEO in Sydney, a role she held for four years, following a near 20-year career with Hill & Knowlton.
Susan Redden Makatoa has taken an expanded role
The agency said in a statement that Hutton will “ensure strategy, creative, data and digital sit at the heart of all client business and growth efforts”.
Meanwhile, as APAC head of corporate, Redden Makatoa will lead Edelman’s reputation and advisory practice across the region. She will report to Edelman president and APAC CEO Stephen Kehoe and global vice chair of corporate affairs Dave Samson.
Kehoe said: “With these moves, we are creating a more powerful, client-centric organisation than ever before in APAC.
“We’re an agency that has never stood still; our pioneering spirit continues today and we have a collective hunger to deliver impactful and effective integrated work for our clients, with a One Edelman mindset.”
In a further move, Simon Murphy has been appointed head of corporate innovation for APAC.
Murphy will return to Australia in November after four years as head of corporate for Edelman in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
