• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 17, 2013

Phil Cowdell, the former CEO and later chairman of Mindshare North America, has returned to the agency’s parent company GroupM in a new role. Cowdell has been appointed president, client services at GroupM, the media agency management arm within WPP.

Cowdell will work with clients across the GroupM portfolio of media shops. In addition to Mindshare, those agencies include MEC, MediaCom and Maxus.

Cowdell’s remit is not to lead day-to-day account activities, but to serve as a sort of “in-team consultant” to strategize with select clients about “what’s next and how to get there fast,” said Cowdell.

Part and parcel of that mission, he said, is to help plan the future shape and direction of the GroupM agencies so they will be well-positioned to advance the marketing communications agendas of their clients.

Currently, Cowdell is working with Maxus client SC Johnson and Mindshare clients Kimberly-Clark and TGI Fridays. He has a dual reporting line to Kelly Clark, GroupM’s North American CEO and Dominic Proctor, president GroupM Global.

Cowdell was CEO of Mindshare North America from 2009 to 2011. He then became chairman of the agency when Antony Young joined the shop to succeed him as CEO. In early 2012, Cowdell left Mindshare to become president of Portland, Ore.-based R2C Group. He left that shop in March of this year. It was shortly after leaving R2C that Cowdell began talking to GroupM executives, including global CEO Irwin Gotlieb, about a possible return to the company.

Cowdell said he “really enjoyed” his time in Portland and with R2C Group, noting that he honed new skills in the CRM, e-commerce and digital DR sectors, where R2C has a lot of expertise. He says he learned to better balance work and family during his time in Portland, which he described as a “fabulous place.” While he’ll miss skiing down Mount Hood on the weekends, “I’m bringing those family habits back to the East Coast with me,” he said.

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