GroupM’s new CEO Aimee Buchanan spent ten years at OMD, trading on a transparency ticket and throwing stones at the approaches taken by GroupM and other “enemy” holdcos. New Essence CEO Pat Crowley was the ultimate under-the-radar operator. As one industry observer has it, “Pat played by Covid rules before Covid existed”. But he led Ikon’s CommBank account for 17 years, and the Sydney agency for half a dozen – and says grown-up kids mean it’s time to step up to steer Essence through the turbulence of a triple whammy agency merger. The two make the perfect odd couple, eerily aligned on transparency, what’s under the trading hood, diversity and decarbonisation of media supply chains – coming soon – and executing the new operating framework for the holdco, its people and business units locally. Buchanan says she even has license to make changes at the expense of profit targets. But she’s not known for missing them.

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