- Steve McClellan

Barbara Cipolla, former U.S. president at WPP Group's MediaCom, has joined Omnicom's OMD Worldwide as chief marketing officer, the agency has confirmed. The position is a new one at the shop.

She will report to OMD Worldwide CEO Mainardo de Nardis. The two have known each other since working at WPP's Mediaedge:cia from 2000-06, when de Nardis was global CEO and Cipolla was a managing partner and director of marketing and business development.

Commenting on the appointment, OMD said: "Barbara will play an important role in assuring brand consistency across the global network. She will be working with  OMD marketing specialists at the local and regional level in the North America, LATAM, APAC and EMEA regions, aligning their efforts to enhance the collective impact -- a true bottom-up approach that will better leverage globally the work being done by OMD offices across the network."

Cipolla left MediaCom in July after a two-year stint at the shop. She joined the shop from sibling agency MEC in May 2007, when Dene Callas was still running MediaCom. Current North American CEO Doug Checkeris replaced Callas in August of that year.

At MEC, Cipolla was credited with helping the agency win key accounts such as Cingular, Energizer and Paramount.

Cipolla is one of several senior GroupM media agency veterans to join Omnicom media shops this year. In March, Ernie Simon, president of strategic planning at Mindshare, joined OMD as chief strategy officer. Earlier this month, Steve Piluso, managing director, Mindshare Entertainment, joined OMD sibling shop PHD as managing partner, East, in charge of the agency's New York, Chicago and Minneapolis offices.