MediaCom exec Charlie Yeates will move to Bauer Media as director of investment after more than 16 years at at the WPP media agency.
Yeates will take up the newly-created role in Bauer Media’s commercial sales team in June and lead sales efforts on agency holding companies and relationship building with agency partners.
He started as a senior planner/buyer in 2005 before moving to associate director in 2009, board director in 2012 and finally partner in 2018.
He also worked within GroupM, the WPP media agency network, on its trading approach to the audio market.
Yeates started his career as a broadcast planner/buyer at independent agency John Ayling & Associates where he stayed for nearly five years.
Commenting on his appointment, Yeates said: “These are exciting times for the audio sector and I believe that Bauer is the best place for me to capitalise on the continued growth in the sector, whether in broadcast or digital audio”.
Bauer has also promoted Ben Barker to head of trading from head of commercial strategy with immediate effect.
He has had several roles at Bauer since joining in 2012 including head of agency sales at Absolute Radio and trading strategy consultant and head of commercial strategy, radio.
Prior to Bauer, Barker worked as sales director in Europe for Rockabox and spent more than 12 years at Omnicom’s OMD UK.
In his new role he will be responsible for driving further growth in deals across all Bauer platforms.
Simon Kilby, managing director of Bauer Media Advertising, said: “Our distinctive platforms and brands offer much scope for commercial partners to reach valued audiences. We are continually focused on ensuring that our products and sales focus meet the needs of our valued customers and delighted that with these two appointments we can further our unrivalled service offering.”
