After promoting Pat Lafferty to COO of McCann Erickson North America last fall, McCann Worldgroup has finally found leadership to succeed the exec in the Global Brand community he established in 2011. Taking over as joint leaders of the GBC will be McCann Worldgroup Europe president Gustavo Martinez, who replaced Brett Gosper a year ago, and Luca Lindner, president of Worldgroup ops in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Both execs will maintain their current roles while also assuming the title of president, Global Brands.
The Global Brand group consists of the leaders of McCann Worldgroup’s global accounts including L’Oreal, MasterCard, Nestle and Coca-Cola. The added responsibility should be familiar to Martinez, who previously held the dual roles of global new business director and head of the Global Brand Management division at Ogilvy. Brazil-based Lindner, meanwhile, is a Leo Burnet EMEA alum who joined McCann in 2005 as regional director of Latin America and the Caribbean.