Toby Southgate, who was the youngest ever CEO of WPP branding agency Brand Union, has joined McCann Worldgroup in the capacity of global chief growth officer. He quit Brand Union a couple of months back and now at McCann his area of focus will be to boost on new business efforts, and strengthen the agency’s relationships with existing clients and work on developing partnerships globally with all the agencies across McCann’s network.
Southgate has replaced Alex Lubar, who was McCann’s global chief marketing officer till about the end of 2015 before moving to the agency’s London office as CEO.
Southgate, who is a native of the UK, had joined Brand Union in 2007 and worked his way up within the agency’s network. He had been the managing director in its Abu Dhabi office and headed its operations in the UK and Ireland before becoming CEO of the Americas. Thereafter he was made the head of the agency’s global operations in 2015 and during this time, he handled accounts like Bank of America, HSBC, Sony and Vodafone among many other global giants. Chairman and CEO of McCann Worldgroup, Harris Diamond, said, “What makes Toby so effective in business development is that he relishes the complexity of brand challenges in today’s complex business environment and he knows how to harness resources to create innovative multiplatform solutions for clients.”
For his part, Southgate said, “Three things have made me hungry for this role: a magnetic culture, world-class people, and a relentless, unifying focus on doing great work for great clients. For a 100+-year-old business to sit at the cutting edge of our industry is something special. I’m excited to get to work helping clients do more with their businesses and brands.”