Omnicom Taps Former Aegis Media Chief de Nardis To Run OMD

Omnicom Media Group continues to bulk up its senior management team, naming another industry heavyweight - former Aegis Media chief Mainardo do Nardis - as CEO of OMD Worldwide, filling a hole in Omnicom's media organization that has been open since February 2007 when Joe Uva left that post to become CEO of Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.

In his new position, de Nardis, 47, will be based in New York and report to Daryl Simm, chairman-CEO of Omnicom Media Group. The appointment is effective first quarter of 2009, presumably when his non-compete with Aegis Group expires.

An Italian native, de Nardis has been a player on the global media services scene for more than 20 years. Prior to Aegis Group, he was CEO of CIA (Chris Ingram Associates), which was acquired by WPP Group and merged with The Media Edge to form WPP's Mediaedge:cia network.

The appointment comes six months after Omnicom recruited former Initiative star Alan Cohen to become CEO of OMD in the U.S., and subsequently raided a number of key senior initiative executives known for their innovation work.

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The move helps broaden and solidify Omnicom's media management structure, and alleviates some of the burden from OMG chief Simm who has had to help manage OMD's global operations since Uva left.

Omnicom, meanwhile, still has something of a void in its other major media network, PHD, which lost its North American CEO Matt Seiler in July, when he was raided by Interpublic to become CEO of Universal McCann after former UM chief Nick Brien became head of Inerpublic's MediaBrands unit. Seiler had been in that role little more than a year, after succeeding Steve Grubbs in 2007 when Grubbs left to run Omnicom's Fuse Entertainment and Sports Group.

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