GroupM names Mike Tunnicliffe Chief Growth Officer

The announcement was made by GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman, who said Tunnicliffe will lead a new team designed to maximize support for GroupM agencies in the areas of new business, organic growth, and collaboration initiatives. His appointment is effective immediately.

In his new role Tunnicliffe will create a "central growth team," consisting of agency professionals and GroupM and WPP resources that will provide added value services, senior-level expertise, resources, tools, coordination and overall guidance for the individual new business development operations at each GroupM agency. GroupM serves as the parent company for WPP's four award-winning, global media services agencies: Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare.

"In order to ensure that our agencies' new business operations are running at full speed, it's essential that they maximize all the resources available to them, not only within GroupM but also within our holding company, WPP," Norman said in making the announcement. "Mike and his team will ensure that all our agencies have access to and utilize the many and varied specialist resources available to them throughout this vast network."

Tunnicliffe joined GroupM in September 2010 as Leader of Specialist Services. In that role he was responsible for revenue growth and the development of specialist services across GroupM, with oversight of more than 30 specialist businesses and units in the digital, content, analytics and trading spaces available to all GroupM clients.

A U.K. native, Tunnicliffe previously served as CEO of the former CIA Medianetwork in the U.K., which was later merged into GroupM's MEC, and as CEO of the former Western International Media in the U.K., which was later merged into Initiative Media, a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Throughout his career, Tunnicliffe also has worked as a global account leader for leading international brands and Fortune 500 companies including Unilever and Wrangler and Lee Jeans.