• by Joe Mandese , September 28, 2011

In a surprise development Tuesday evening, Lee Doyle announced he is stepping down as CEO of North America for WPP's MEC media agency network. Doyle, who has been with the agency for 12 years, said he was taking a "new direction" within GroupM and WPP, which would be announced soon.

MEC said Global CEO Charles Courtier will take management responsibility for the North American operations until a new CEO is named, and said a team of other executives would help during the transition, including GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman, and five senior MEC managers:

* Marla Kaplowitz, President, US Clients
* Eamonn Store, President, Global Solutions
* Dennis Donlin, President, Team AT&T
* Mark Sanders, Chief Financial Officer
* Michele Pauchuk, President MEC Canada "MEC is good at change," Doyle said in a statement, adding, "It's what we do best and this is an opportunity for the agency to take a new direction. I can't wait to see what's round the next corner."

Courtier emphasized that "it's not goodbye," noting, "Lee is committed to the group and vice versa - we will see him in a new role soon."

Before joining MEC in 2000, Doyle was executive vice president-director of media services at Ammirati & Puris Lintas, which was subsequently merged into Interpublic's Lowe unit. Before that, he cut his teeth in the legendary media department of Benton & Bowles, and ultimately into its media services spin-off MediaVest, which he became a senior vice president-group media director working on a range of accounts including Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Masterfoods, Whirlpool and Philips Electronics, and where he forged a close bond with former MediaVest chief Irwin Gotlieb, now global CEO of WPP's GroupM, the largest media services company in the world.