Grey Group chief digital officer Zachary Treuhaft announced his resignation yesterday after nearly three years with the WPP shop.
We cannot provide a statement confirming his destination at this time, but we hear that he has accepted a new job at a major media agency, where he will be responsible for working to “fuse programmatic with digital media.” Multiple reliable sources have told us that he will go to Omnicom’s yet-to-be named network handling the P&G business.
His hire is the second within the unit following that of former Deutsch chief marketer Tara Levine, who will be its CMO.
Treuhaft joined Grey in the summer of 2013 days after the agency’s New York office promoted Michael Houston from COO to CEO. (He’s now global president and North American CEO.)
Treuhaft was not new to WPP; he’d previously served as co-managing director of WPP’s global digital agency VML in New York for more than two years after working as group account director. Earlier roles within the WPP organization include director of product strategy and business development at 24/7 Real Media and a fellowship at the network’s “selective, high-caliber management training program.” At the time, Houston noted that Grey spent several months searching for a candidate “to lead our digital initiatives” before choosing Treuhaft.
Sources close to the agency claim that Grey has tripled its global digital revenue over the past five years and won major digital assignments from clients such as P&G, Nestle, Canon and GSK. This renewed focus on digital was led by Treuhaft, and it was seen as a major priority of Grey global CEO Jim Heekin.
Treuhaft started his agency career as a producer before becoming creative director at experiential agency The RJO Group and then moving into a communications role at Y&R. He eventually replaced Grey’s first CDO Josh Golden, who worked for WPP from 2010 to 2011 and later became CMO at Story Worldwide; he now serves as VP of global digital marketing at Xerox.
A Grey spokesperson told us today that the agency has no plans to replace Treuhaft as multiple employees are currently overseeing its digital operations in New York.
An Omnicom Media spokesperson declined to comment on rumors that its network would be hiring the departing executive.