Mindshare has restructured its North American management team, appointing Mindshare and GroupM veteran Ernie Simon as CEO. He replaces Colin Kinsella, who had held the role since 2013 and is leaving to pursue what the company describes as “other opportunities.”
Simon was most recently president of GroupM Consulting, working on new and existing business to ensure that clients had access to GroupM and WPP’s resources. He has more than 10 years of experience at GroupM, seven of which were spent with Mindshare – first as global strategic planner and later as chief strategy officer for North America.
The company has also promoted two of its “highest performers” into new senior leadership positions, with Adam Gerhart named U.S. CEO and Cindy Gustafson named chief strategy officer.
Gerhart was most recently Mindshare’s west coast lead, while Gustafson was previously managing director of Mindshare North America’s Invention Studio, a new division she launched with the intention of developing original ideas by weaving brands into culture.
She previously led business for top Mindshare clients including Unilever and American Express.
The two executives join a senior leadership team that includes chief operating officer Renee Milliaressis; Mindshare Canada CEO Karen Nayler; chief client officer David Pullin and chief content officer David Lang.
Mindshare’s global CEO Nick Emery said that Mindshare North is “on a roll,” having won General Mills’ global media assignment, retained the North American mandate for Unilever and won Booking.com in 2015.
The network boasted an 8.4% share of North American media billings in 2014 according to the most recent data from RECMA. Mindshare has global billings of US$34.5 billion.
