Initiative CEO Melissa Fein, managing director Sam Geer and chief strategy + product officer Chris Colter depart to lead media at Accenture
Initiative CEO Melissa Fein is set to depart the agency alongside national managing director Sam Geer and Chris Colter, chief strategy and product officer. In a significant move, the trio of media industry leaders will join tech-powered creative group Accenture Song to spearhead media.
The appointments support Accenture Song’s promise to create impact for clients through the integration of creativity, technology and media, and will significantly enhance and expand the existing media services offered to Song’s clients in ANZ.
Says Mark Green, Accenture Song ANZ president: “There is no doubt that media is a business growth driver and strategic differentiator for our clients. Melissa, Sam and Chris are strong hires for us, and their addition to our team in Australia reflects our global strategy to deliver future facing media and integrated solutions for our clients.
“Media is a growth area globally for Accenture Song and we are seeing momentum in our end-to-end media offerings in all regions. These appointments serve to extend our footprint into this market that will improve our ability to service the region.”
Says a spokesperson from IPG Mediabrands: “While we respect that there are many questions to be asked and answered, no further comment will be made at this time. Further details will be provided in due course.
“At this early stage, we acknowledge the tremendous contribution that Melissa, Sam and Chris have made to Initiative and the wider IPG Mediabrands company.”
Fein joined Initiative as CEO in 2016. Prior to that she was CEO of IPG Mediabrands’ partnerships and brand experience agency Ensemble.
Geer joined Initiative in 2018 as chief strategy officer. He joined from UM Australia, where he held the role of national strategy director. In 2020 he was promoted to managing director.
Initiative appointed Colter to the role of national strategy officer in April 2019. After 13 months he was promoted to chief strategy officer and then chief strategy and product officer. Prior to Initiative, he spent over seven years at UM Australia.
5 Comments
If it’s media-related news, nobody comments 🙂
This is the biggest news in the industry in 15+ years. But I guess people would prefer to slag off work they didn’t do.
Unfortunately the creatives that troll these pages have such narrow vision. This and the rest of Accentures acquisitions spell big trouble for the other networks, and they have no idea.
No comments because this is very boring. Same formulaic media buying will now be available from Accenture Song. Like it is everywhere else. Well done.
three extremely smart operators. but fact is that INI hasn’t made money beyond staff costs in the last 5 years. hopefully they can make a considerable shift at AS.