• by Steve McClellan , September 15, 2016

GroupM is in the midst of a management reassessment that will result in the redistribution of responsibilities for some executives at the WPP media management firm, according to sources. The changes are expected to be finalized in the next several weeks.

Among those expected to take on new duties is GroupM North America veteran Rino Scanzoni, the current Chief Investment Officer. Exactly what his new role will encompass was not immediately clear and may still be in discussion stages. Also unknown is who will succeed him as CIO. 

But insiders stressed that contrary to marketplace rumors, Scanzoni is not leaving the firm. Those rumors were likely sparked by the fact that he spends about half his time working out of his home in Park City, Utah, a mecca for skiing enthusiasts like himself.

Sources familiar with the situation say Scanzoni is working with other GroupM leaders to craft new and bigger roles for some of the talented up-and-comers on his team in recognition of their achievements.

In addition to overseeing the media holding company’s North America investment practice (investment heads at Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus report to him), Scanzoni has been an industry leader in shaping measurement standards.

He was instrumental for example, in the industry’s adoption of the so-called C3 metric for TV in 2007 and GroupM’s move to C7 last year.

More recently, Scanzoni has been advocating for the adoption of Nielsen’s Total Audience metric and pushing the measurement firm to have it ready to go in time for next year’s upfront.

The investment practice is just one of several areas where changes are afoot, according to sources, although it was not immediately clear what those other areas are.

The moves follow the promotion late last year of Brian Lesser to CEO GroupM North America. He replaced Kelly Clark who left for personal reasons.