Publicis is combining its businesses in the U.S. and Canada to create a new operating region, Publicis North America, which will be headed up by Andrew Bruce as CEO and Susan Gianinno as chairman. Publicis North America will be the Paris-based company’s largest region outside of France.
Bruce, most recently president and CEO of Publicis Worldwide in Canada, has been with the company since 1999 and will relocate to New York in January. Gianinno joined Publicis in 2002 as chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide in the U.S. She has also been a member of the agency network parent’s Publicis Groupe Strategic Leadership Team.
The search for a successor to Gianinno has been under consideration for some time.
At Publicis in Canada, Andrew Bruce will be succeeded by his brother Duncan, creative director for Canada, who is being promoted to president.
Gianinno will also be spending a portion of her time next year at Harvard University where she has been named a 2014 Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow, a one-year fellowship. The agency said she will resume her full responsibilities at Publicis at the end of that initiative and will continue to work out of Publicis’ New York offices throughout 2014.
