CHE Proximity lures Ben Shepherd from PwC Australia to chief media officer role

Ben Shepherd has been hired as chief media officer as CHE Proximity continues to deepen its consultancy capabilities across its connected creativity framework.

Shepherd joins CHE Proximity from PwC, where he was director of the firm’s Media Practice and a founding member of its CMO Advisory Practice. Prior to this he was head of strategy and innovation at OMD Australia.

Shepherd will lead CHE Proximity’s media practice across Australia and work in partnership with CHE Proximity’s leaders across creative, data, technology and CX.

Says Chris Howatson, CEO, CHE Proximity: “Ben is a stand out leader in the media and consulting fields. He is curious, tenacious and absolutely driven to achieve success for his clients. He has the perfect balance of incumbent media knowledge and transformational experience thinking.”

Says Shepherd: “Chris and I share the same idea of the opportunities within media and the best way to approach it in order to create material value for marketers. We have a model that is unlike any other in market and one that will deliver strategic rigour, consultancy capabilities as well as operational and delivery excellence.

“The CHE Proximity approach to connected creativity was appealing to me as it merges rational, data led thinking and analysis, with creative thinking and strong capabilities across data, design, customer experience and technology to build business changing work for its clients.”

David Halter, CSO at CHE Proximity, noted the role for media accountability: “We’re managing enormous spends for our clients. It’s easy to become desensitised to the value, but we always come back to the simple adage of ‘how would we spend it if it were our money?’ This encourages a performance culture and a desire to not spend it if we don’t have to. We’ll often direct paid investment into owned channels if that is the most effective and efficient path to take.

Says Shepherd: “Media in general is much more complex than it needs to be. CHE Proximity’s pure focus on client outcomes is aligned with my personal values and we will continue to build upon this model of complete transparency in order for our efforts to be completely focused as an organisation at making our clients brands more valuable. The ability to lead a practice into its next evolution, free of any incumbency or legacy practices or ways of working, is incredibly liberating and exciting.”

Shepherd will commence at CHE Proximity on June 19th.