Wavemaker China CEO exits, Nexus and Choreograph appoint leaders

GroupM has confirmed the departure of Wavemaker China CEO Jose Campon and announced two key leadership appointments for the China market, Campaign can reveal.

Campon, who joined Wavemaker in 2021 from Dentsu where he was APAC client president, is stepping down after four years to pursue external opportunities in 2025. He was hired by former Wavemaker CEO for APAC, Gordan Domlija, to oversee the China market. Consequently, Domlija exited GroupM China himself in January 2023.

Campon has over two decades of media and marketing experience, having previously held senior roles at iProspect (part of the Dentsu Group) and spent nearly four years at Google before his tenure at Wavemaker. No replacement for Campon's role has been confirmed as yet.

In addition to Campon’s departure, GroupM have promoted Jerman Zhang to president of Nexus for China, where he will focus on growing the group’s capabilities across search, programmatic platform services (PPS), commerce, social, and platform independent software vendors (ISV). Zhang first joined GroupM in 2013 and most recently served as chief commerce officer for China.

Meanwhile, Austin Winters has been appointed as president of Choreograph China. Winters will lead the newly unified organisation that integrates media products, digital, data analytics and science, consulting, and enablement. Both Zhang and Winters will now sit on GroupM’s executive committee in China, reporting directly to Rupert McPetrie, GroupM CEO in China.

GroupM confirmed the changes to Campaign in the following statement:

"Jose Campon is departing after four years being the CEO of Wavemaker China. The decision has been taken due to Jose’s personal purusit of new challenges, and starting a new journey in 2025."

These leadership changes come amid a broader organisational restructuring this year in the region, following a series of high-profile exits in Hong Kong including Alice Chow (former CEO of GroupM Hong Kong), Irene Tsui (former managing director of Mindshare Hong Kong), Carlton Kwan (former CFO of GroupM Hong Kong), and Gilles Detanger (former chief commercial officer for EssenceMediaCom APAC) in May.

At the time, GroupM said the shifts align with their ‘synergy project,’ initiated by former GroupM global CEO Christian Juhl—which focused on streamlining leadership and driving operational efficiencies. Juhl has since moved roles himself to lead corporate development for WPP, with Brian Lesser being appointed to global chief executive of GroupM in July.

The shifts come in the wake of last year’s bribery scandal involving several GroupM China executives, which was followed by a string of key client losses and the subsequent resignation of Patrick Xu, WPP China country manager and GroupM CEO for China, after more than 10 years with the holding company.