Brien Confirmed As Universal McCann’s President

Nick Brien has been confirmed as media agency Universal McCann’s new chief executive and president, following the post being filled on an interim basis, by Murray Dudgeon.

The appointment of Brien takes place after Robin Kent left the position of chief executive and president in mid March. Kent departed after a series of setbacks at Universal McCann, leaving shortly after its biggest client General Motors put its £3.2 million account into review.

Brien will report to Interpublic Group’s chief executive officer, Mark Rosenthal. Commenting on the appointment, Rosenthal said: “Nick Brien is more than just a top-tier international media executive. He brings a unique breadth of experience, having also led an ad agency and a multi-disciplinary marketing services firm.”

He continued: “He’s known as a passionate client partner who understands the big picture and the growing need to build brands with fully-integrated media solutions.”

John Dooner, Worldgroup chairman and chief executive officer for Universal McCann added: “Brien is absolutely the right person to lead Universal McCann forward as part of the next generation media offering Mark Rosenthal is creating. Plus with his unique background encompassing both media and marketing communications, he provides Universal McCann with the ideal complementary link to Worldgroup’s full set of capabilities.”

>Brien moves from Arc Worldwide, where he was chief executive officer. Before joining Arc in February 2004, Brien was president of corporate business development at Starcom MediaVest Group.

Earlier this year, Jim Kite, Universal McCann’s top research executive, left the company’s global research division at the Interpublic unit, taking up the head research post at Publicis’ MediaVest unit (see McCann Loses Kite As Wind Of Change Sweeps Management).

Universal McCann: www.universalmccann.com