• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, November 28, 2014

WPP’s programmatic media and technology platform Xaxis has appointed Mickey Zhang as managing director for China, the shop has confirmed.

With more than 10 years of digital advertising experience on both the agency and publisher sides, Zhang brings expertise in the China ad market to the role, where she will be responsible for leading Xaxis operations throughout China. Zhang will oversee the expansion of programmatic offerings in the China market, with additional responsibility for managing GroupM search and e-commerce as well as spearheading future digital developments in China. 

China currently represents one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing digital markets to-date, with half a billion users and advertising growth rates averaging 30% to 40% a year, according to the holding company.

“Xaxis has been an integral part of GroupM’s digital strategy since the launch of its China operations in 2012,” said Patrick Xu, CEO, GroupM China. “Zhang has been at the helm of GroupM’s award-winning search team in China and will no doubt be a great addition to the Xaxis team.”

Zhang was also instrumental in launching GroupM E-commerce, a unit focused on providing E-commerce consultancy services to over 20 clients, including GSK, Pfizer, Maybelline, Brita, Nestle and COFCO. Zhang was recently promoted to managing director of E-Commerce and Search at GroupM.

Prior to GroupM, Zhang led sales teams at Google and Baidu, respectively, to provide integrated search marketing services for direct-response clients in retail, travel, education, gaming and other sectors. Zhang started her career at eBay as a digital marketing analyst responsible for all marketing-related data mining and data-driven business optimization.