• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, July 1, 2020

Kantar has appointed Chief Financial Officer Ian Griffiths to the newly created position of Deputy CEO. Griffiths joined the company in January as CFO and will retain those duties.

The company said the deputy CEO spot was created “to provide continuity of leadership.” Griffiths will lead day-to-day operations at the company until a new CEO is appointed.

The former CEO, Eric Salama, announced last December he was stepping down after the company’s restructuring into a joint venture between Bain Capital, which now owns 60% of the firm, and WPP, which retains a 40% share.

Initially, Salama was supposed to remain in the post until a successor was named and take on an advisory role after that. But in February, Bain opted to put him on paid leave, with his advisory role expected to start this month.

But now, Salama has opted to leave Kantar altogether and pursue other opportunities.

He posted a note on his LinkedIn page recently, where he shared that Bain’s decision to put him on leave “didn’t feel right” and he requested the advisory role contract be annulled. Bain agreed.

“I’m so excited about the future and will be announcing a couple of new roles in the coming weeks,” Salama wrote.