Former GroupM North America CEO Brian Lesser is returning to the WPP media arm as Global CEO, succeeding Christian Juhl.   

 Juhl is stepping down after five years in the role and will take up a new position with WPP as President, Corporate Development. 

GroupM had a rough 2023--WPP acknowledged that the media arm was particularly hard hit by technology firm cutbacks. It has lost a number of major clients over the past year or so including General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Uber and Ikea. Major client Unilever called a media review earlier this year. 

GroupM has been working on a restructuring to improve future performance. It's not immediately clear how Lesser's return will shape that restructuring. 

WPP CEO Mark Read stated, “Brian is one of the industry’s most highly regarded executives with a track record of success in data- and technology-driven marketing. GroupM, its agencies and its brilliant people are in many respects the engine of WPP. Brian not only knows GroupM inside-out, but also has a strong vision for the future of the business."

Lesser spent 10 years with WPP including as CEO of GroupM in North America from 2015 to 2017. His new appointment takes effect in September.  Juhl will continue in his existing role until then and support the transition as he moves to his new position. 

Lesser first joined WPP with the acquisition of 24/7 Real Media in 2007. He  created the Media Innovation Group, building addressable advertising products and technology for GroupM, including one of the industry’s first data management platforms. In 2011 he founded Xaxis, the programmatic media buying platform which now forms part of GroupM’s media performance organization, GroupM Nexus. 

After leading GroupM in North America he joined AT&T as CEO of AT&T Advertising & Analytics, a $3 billion business today known as Xandr. He took on his current role as CEO and Chairman of data company InfoSum in 2020. 

GroupM manages more than $60 billion in annual billings for clients.