GroupM China's CEO Patrick Xu steps down after 10 years

GroupM China’s country manager and CEO Patrick Xu (pictured) has stepped down from his role after 10 years, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands.  

His role will be split and replaced by WPP senior executives Ruper McPetrie and Chris Reitermann.  

This came shortly after the Chinese authorities raided GroupM’s Shanghai office detained a senior executive and two former employees over alleged bribery in October last year.  

WPP, the parent company of GroupM, told CNN that it has fired an executive and suspended trade with any external organisation it understood to be part of the police inquiries.  

The advertising giant also said it was cooperating with the authorities and conducting its internal investigation with an independent third party. 

According to a statement by Shanghai Public Security Bureau, its economic crime investigation department had cracked a commercial bribery case which involved an advertising firm.  

Despite not disclosing the company name, the statement stated that a senior executive and two former staff have been detained.  

On the other hand, in terms of total retained new business value, GroupM has continued to lead the industry in total retained new business billings through the first three quarters of 2023, according to data contained in the latest New Business Barometer (NBB) Report published by COMvergence, an independent and international research bureau measuring the performance of major global advertising and media agencies. 

The report assessed that GroupM retained more than US$1.7 billion in billings from Q1 to Q3 2023, more than the total of retained billings from the next two media groups combined, underscoring the group’s commitment to its client relationships and excellence in client service and media delivery. 

Additionally, the report found GroupM collectively held the highest percentage of wins and retentions in the industry (20%) between January and September 2023. 

GroupM also placed in the top three in total new business value in over half of global markets tracked in COMvergence’s report, and continues to gain strong momentum in APAC, placing first in total new business value in the region at over US$1.4 billion, up nearly a third since Q2 and almost double the amount of the next ranked group.

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