Stagwell Hires and Promotes for New Marketing Team

The Stagwell Group, owner of the Harris and Harris Poll brands, has created a central marketing team with several new hires and promotions, including the appointment of former Kantar exec Anas Ghazi as Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer.

Formed in 2015 by Mark Penn, co-founder of custom research and analytics consultancy Penn Schoen Berland, holding company Stagwell is building a portfolio of marketing services companies which includes Harris Insights & Analytics; Nielsen's Mobile Insights Survey and Total Communications Survey, now known as HarrisX; and Nielsen's former entertainment research subsidiary NRG.

Stagwell's central marketing team will look for joint sales opportunities for the group's Data + Creativity model, by collaborating across the firm's brands, which include creative digital agency Code and Theory, performance marketing agency ForwardPMX, Harris Research and creative agency Observatory. Ghazi joins after six years at WPP, where he initially served as Director of Partnerships for the group's Data Alliance, and more recently worked as Kantar's Growth Officer. At Stagwell, he oversees client engagement, business development and go-to-market strategy. In addition, Alexis Williams joins as Executive Vice President and Head of Marketing after nine years at news and information company Politico. She now heads up Stagwell's marketing, positioning and thought leadership efforts.

Merrill Raman, Chief Information Officer of Harris Poll moves into the role of Managing Director, Enterprise Data, with a focus on developing data assets across the company's brands and supporting 'client transformations', having previously held leadership roles at Penn Schoen & Berland. Regan Considine, formerly Director of Strategic Partnerships at National Journal's Network Science Initiative, becomes a Senior Director, working across marketing, PR, and new business efforts The team will be led by Beth Lester Sidhu (pictured), COO and newly promoted CMO, who manages the group's acquisition operations and shared services including centralized new business, marketing, product and technology efforts. She previously held leadership roles at Politico, PR firm Burson-Marsteller, Penn, Schoen & Berland and the Political Unit of CBS News.

Commenting on the news, Penn said: 'We didn't just build a collection of agencies, we built a company that could meet the full needs of a brand. Now it's time to build the team who can meld all the pieces that we've gathered and bring them to market'.

Web site: www.stagwellgroup.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.