Leadership change at IPG as Philippe Krakowsky succeeds Michael Roth

Interpublic Group has named Philippe Krakowsky (pictured left) its CEO and a member of the board of directors, effective 1 January 2021, replacing current chairman and CEO Michael Roth (pictured right), who will assume the role of executive chairman of the board next January. As executive chairman, Roth will work closely with the board and Krakowsky in his new role and with senior company executives on continuing to manage through changes related to COVID-19 and help shape the future of IPG.

Krakowsky is currently the EVP and COO of IPG and the chairman of Mediabrands, with direct oversight of several IPG companies including Acxiom, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch, Hill Holiday, Huge, Matterkind and R/GA. During his 18 years at IPG, Krakowsky has also overseen communications, business development, strategy and talent functions, and he remains the chief strategy officer for IPG. Before being named IPG’s COO, he also held the role of CEO of Mediabrands, leading the 10,500-strong unit. He has served on the boards of several IPG companies, including Huge and the IPG-backed O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul. Additionally, Krawkosky has mentored star-ups as part of R/GA’s Accelerator and served as interim CEO of FCB for much of 2013, during the agency’s leadership transition.

Meanwhile, Roth joined the IPG board in 2002 and chaired its audit committee until his appointment as executive chairman and co-CEO in 2004, and CEO in 2005. During his tenure as CEO, Roth righted the company’s financial course and made IPG an industry leader through organisational and financial restructuring, building a culture of collaboration, and ensuring IPG remained ahead of its peers through the early adoption of data-centric and digital-first tools across the entire organisation. 

Under Roth’s leadership, IPG made diversity and inclusion a key aspect of how IPG’s leadership team and individual businesses are graded and introduced ambitious goals to create long-term culture change. Since Roth began implementing IPG’s formal diversity and inclusion programs, the company has seen important shifts in its workforce for people of color and women. 

(Read also: IPG boss Michael Roth sends out global memo to fight workplace harassment)

Krakowsky said it is an honour to be elected as the next CEO of IPG, and he appreciates the confidence that Roth and the board have placed in him.

“I am looking forward to working with our 50,000 people and all our clients around the world at this unique time, where we are seeing changes in media and consumer behaviour accelerate at incredible speed. We have great opportunities ahead to help clients deepen their relationships with their customers, doing so efficiently, creatively and at-scale,” he added.

Meanwhile, Roth said Krakowsky is the right CEO for the next era at IPG. According to Roth, he is a brilliant strategist and effective leader who has played a key role in developing its open architecture client service model, as well as modernising its data, marketing services and media solutions.

“Through his multiple experiences running businesses and corporate functions at IPG, Krakowsky has built an outstanding track record of delivering growth for clients and IPG. In working with him for these past 18 years, I have seen firsthand that Krakowsky is a values-driven leader who is well-positioned to lead IPG and our clients into a new era of marketing. He cares about people and leads with his head and his heart,” Roth added.

David Thomas, presiding director of the IPG board of directors, said Roth’s leadership of IPG been and continues to be outstanding.

“He has substantially transformed the company and ushered in a new era of modern marketing solutions. He has taken bold strategic actions to reposition IPG for the future, focusing the company on the right business lines, growing digital and data capabilities organically and through acquisition, all while advancing diversity and employee engagement and setting the industry standard for growth and margin expansion,” he said.

At the same time, IPG also reported a net revenue of US$1.95 billion for the third quarter of 2020, a decrease of 5.2% from a year ago, with organic net revenue decrease of 3.7%, due to impact of COVID-19 macroeconomic disruption. Third quarter organic change of net revenue was negative 6.0% in international markets and negative 2.4% in the US. At the same time, IPG has also been implementing cost cutting measures such as lay offs and furloughs, as early as April this year. According to Adweek, it recently laid off employees in Matterkind and Kinesso in the US. 

Meanwhile, it also parted ways with former Mediabrands Singapore CEO David Haddad and former Initiative APAC president Will Anstee in May. Additionally, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE also understands that senior level layoffs were made in Mediabrands Malaysia too, but the agency previously declined to comment.

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