Digitas Australia MD moves to global WPP role

Ian Gough, previously MD at Digitas in Australia, is moving to a global WPP role based in London.

Gough, who was named to Campaign Asia-Pacific's 40 Under 40 for 2020 last November, will be joining WPP as new business director within the marketing and growth team, reporting to Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer.

A WPP spokesperson said the move represents a strengthening of the growth team in order to cater to client and new business demand. Gough will work closely with WPP agencies to support and put together integrated offerings for clients across the areas of communications, experience, commerce and technology, the spokesperson said.

“With his extensive experience spanning global markets from the UK, Hong Kong to Australia, Ian Gough will be an excellent addition to our growth team," Ezekiel said. "WPP has led the new business league tables in the past year and we are looking to build on this success. I’m very much looking forward to working with Ian to bring creative transformation to life for our clients."

Gough has been with Digitas since 2014 as a client director. He later served as managing director in Hong Kong, where he is credited with growing revenue and increasing headcount from 30 to 90. A transfer to Digitas Australia in 2016 saw him rise swiftly from client services director to general manager and then MD starting in 2019. During that time he led the agency through a rebrand and new market propositions, office openings in Melbourne and Auckland, a quadrupling of revenue, and a doubling of employee headcount. 

Digitas announced that it has hired Rebecca Zemunik as managing director. She begins in her new role in July, arriving after four years with Publicis Sapient, most recently as senior director of business development and alliances.