• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, March 19, 2013

Leah Nosnik Meranus has been named Chief Growth Officer for Initiative U.S., a new position at the agency. It’s the first senior management hire at the agency since the arrival of Peter Mears as the shop’s new North American president in early February.

Meranus is tasked with devising business development strategies and processes to boost revenue growth at the agency. In addition to new business pitches, she will focus on organic growth efforts, and prospecting and will manage the shop’s relationships with consultants and outside agencies.

Mears credited Meranus with understanding “how to communicate an agency’s strengths to potential clients.”

Meranus joins the Interpublic Group media shop from competitor MediaCom, a unit of WPP’s GroupM, where she was a senior partner and director of business development.

The move reunites Meranus with both Mears and Matt Seiler, who she worked for earlier at Omnicom’s PHD. At the time, Seiler, now global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, was North American CEO of PHD, while Mears ran the agency’s communications planning practice before being named director of global accounts.

Meranus will report to both Mears at Initiative and Jennifer Hohman, executive vice president and managing director of new business development at Mediabrands, IPG’s media asset oversight arm.

Mears joined Initiative last month after serving as CEO of Mediabrands Canada. His appointment at Initiative was part of a wider shakeup that led to new global and North American leadership at both Initiative and sister media shop UM.

Commenting on her new role, Meranus described both Mears and Seiler as mentors and said the opportunity to rejoin them was “too good to pass up.”

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