Bruce Neve, until recently president of MEC Canada, will be joining Starcom MediaVest Group as CEO of SMG Canada as of May 30.
While SMG declined to give an official comment, a source within the company confirmed the hire late this afternoon. Neve will be based in Toronto and report to Iain Jacob, president of dynamic markets, Starcom MediaVest Group.
Neve will oversee market development and drive growth for SMG – which includes the Starcom and MediaVest brands. He is also charged with further strengthening the strategic product of the company and diversifying media offerings via digital and local opportunities. Plus, he’ll be growing SMG’s global content practice, Liquid Thread.
Neve joined the WPP-owned MEC (then called Mediaedge:cia) in 1996 and succeeded Bruce Grondin as its president in 2008. While there, he landed major clients such as Paramount Motion Pictures, Netflix Canada and Molson Coors Canada.
Prior to MEC, Neve spent time as media director of Young & Rubicam and then Saatchi & Saatchi.
Starcom’s CEO office has been vacant since Lauren Richards left late last year to become CEO of the independently owned Media Experts, taking over for founder Mark Sherman.
