Havas Hires for New Global Chief Data Officer Role

In New York, marcoms network Havas Group has hired former Dentsu Aegis exec Bret Leece for the newly created role of Global Chief Data and Innovation Officer.

Leece (pictured) most recently served as President of Dentsu Aegis' M1, the group's people-based insights, planning, activation and measurement platform. Prior to this, he worked at comScore as Head of TV/Video Product; for media agency Initiative as Global Chief Product Officer, having previously been the company's Global Chief Analytics Officer and its EVP, Analytics & Research; and as SVP and MD, International of MarketShare Partners.

In his new role, Leece is charged with building data products and services and providing platforms for media planning and buying, and is responsible for data sourcing, overall data governance, audience planning and commercialisation. He will also be connected to the Strategy, Research, and Analytics teams.

Peter Mears, CEO of Havas Group Media, comments: 'More than ever, clients want engaging, meaningful content to communicate with their customers - they want that content to be built on a data foundation comprised of what their customers think, feel, and do. As such, Bret Leece will work closely with Havas Media's technology team, who focuses on platform architecture that leads to greater scale'.

Web site: www.havasgroup.com .