Wavemaker appoints trio of client presidents to lead global practices

Wavemaker has expanded the role of three of its executives to head its global Fast Growth, Consultancy and B2B practices, each now led by global client presidents Alastair Bannerman, Anna Hickey and Alex Altman respectively.

The media agency has established the three disciplines as new areas of growth for the business and its clients, each of which will draw on talent from across Group M and WPP.

Wavemaker said it had already hired staff to support the practices and would continue to recruit to bolster the teams. Each of the client presidents will have an extended job title reflecting their additional respsonsibilities.

Bannerman will now head Fast Growth, a worldwide operation aimed at helping build scale-up and start-up brands. These include the likes of Back Market, the $50m account Wavemaker won earlier this year. Other fast-growth clients include Square, SeatGeek, Zwift, Coinbase and DoorDash.

As head of Consultancy, Hickey will support clients across seven areas of expertise, all aimed at identifying and capitalising on new growth areas, such as retail media (Colgate Palmolive), synthetic voice (L'Oréal) and cookie-less data. The seven areas are: applied innovation; ecommerce; content and branded experiences; data strategy; measurement and analytics; addressable solutions; and tech consulting.

Lastly, Altman will take charge of B2B, which has a client roster including Axa, General Electric, TikTok, Reuters and Deloitte. "Scaling up its 'human-first' approach to B2B through a global centre of excellence in London and hubs in North America and Asia Pacific, this dedicated practice will support B2B brands and focus on growth areas such as innovation, strategy and measurement at a global scale," the company said.

The development builds upon June's news that Wavemaker was expanding its global new-business team, appointing Natalie Yorke as London-based global growth partner, Lynee Reilly as chief growth officer for North America and Natalia Lopez as head of growth for Latin America.

Toby Jenner, global chief executive of Wavemaker, said: "Al, Anna and Alex will continue to lead their existing clients with an expanded remit. This will allow our global client leadership to be closer to the capabilities that will best serve our client demands and continue to fuel their growth requirements.

"Al, Anna and Alex will each also be responsible for bringing our unmatched breadth and depth of expertise from Group M and WPP to their individual practices and client needs."