GroupM has appointed six new UK leaders to its global growth and marketing team, just one week after WPP brought back top name Brian Lesser as GroupM CEO.

The new additions, reported by Campaign magazine, will be joining the newly-integrated growth and marketing team which has been headed up by global CEO Toby Jenner since he took on the role in May of this year.

The appointments are expected to be the first of many new additions to the team, as GroupM continues to grow and develop its central team to work alongside subsidiary media agencies, EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker.

Of the six new appointments, three come from Wavemaker, including Hamish Davies – who will be coming on board as GroupM global chief growth and marketing officer, as well as Emma Maple, who – as global growth operations lead – will  be overseeing all global pitches operating out of the UK.

Also joining the central GroupM team from Wavemaker will be Shipra Roy, who is joining the team as global chief people officer, growth and marketing.

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Essence Mediacom’s Laura Neal and Alexandra Scillieri will also be joining the team, in the newly-created role of global head of business reporting and systems and global head of design and production, respectively.

Finally, an internal promotion sees Sam Weston, Group M executive director, global corporate communications, becoming global head of corporate and industry communications and marketing.

The development comes off the back of a tough 2023 for WPP’s wider business, which saw it lag behind rivals including Publicis, Omnicom and IPG.

Among recent wins for WPP, Wavemaker has won the account for L’Oreal, while Colgate Palmolive has taken up WPP as its Amazon agency of record for EMEA.