Chris Pyne, a media planning veteran hired to fill dual executive roles at Omnicom’s OMD last year, is no longer with the agency as of this week.
Pyne has worked for the media agencies of every major holding company throughout his career: he held several planning positions at Publicis’ Optimedia before leaving for WPP’s Mediacom, where he served as both chief strategy officer and chief product officer.
OMD then hired him in January 2014 to serve as president of its Eastern division and CSO for North America. At the time, the agency cited Pyne’s “ability to align an agency strategy with client business objectives” and positioned his hire as a response to an industry that “continues its rapid migration toward business results as the preferred success metric.”
In a statement, OMD framed Pyne’s departure as a strategic move and a joint decision:
“Chris Pyne has resigned from OMD where he was the U.S. strategy lead. Pyne’s departure is concurrent with OMD decentralizing its strategy offer, realigning the discipline to sit at the account level, supported by marketing science specialists embedded in each team. We wish Chris all the best in his next enterprise.”
No word on whether the agency plans to appoint a successor or alter its management structure in the wake of Pyne’s departure.