MPG’s North American CEO Heads to Mosaic

BOSTON Media Planning Group’s North American chief executive, Jim Rose, is leaving the company today to join Mosaic Sales Solutions as its CEO, Mosaic has confirmed.

Rose, 44, succeeds acting CEO Al Castaldi, a senior managing director at JLL Partners, a private equity firm that controls Dallas-based Mosaic, a company that provides field sales and marketing consultation and services.

Havas-owned MPG said in a statement that, “In the interim, members of the MPG management team will continue to operate as before, reporting directly to Fernando Rodés, global chief executive.”

A successor to Rose will be named soon, MPG said.

Rose could not immediately be reached.

Rose joined MPG in May 2002 from QXL Ricardo, a pan-European e-commerce company. Rose has also served as chief executive of United Information Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of United News & Media, a business-to-business publisher. Before that, he spent six years working for AC Nielsen.

MPG in recent months has been defending one of its largest accounts, the $500 million North American media business of Volkswagen, in a review against another VW roster agency, Grey Global Group’s Mediacom. MPG is also defending Intel’s $300 million global business. (Creative chores on Intel, with Havas’ Euro RSCG, are also in play.)

An MPG representative said Rose’s departure is not related to ongoing reviews. The media network is based in Barcelona, Spain, with North American operations headquartered in New York.

This story updates an item posted on Nov. 17 with the news that Rose is joining Mosaic.