Initiative appoints Mauricio Sabogal as global MD

Sabogal spent seven years at Omnicom. In 2002, he was appointed CEO of OMD Latin America, and in 2005, he was appointed president of the OMD Worldwide Creativity Council. In 2007 he was promoted to CEO of Omnicom Media Group in the region, taking on additional responsibility for PHD.

Reporting to Richard Beaven , worldwide CEO of Initiative, Sabogal will oversee the network’s key functions and work with leaders from across both the network and Mediabrands’ group of companies.

Beaven said: “Having someone of Mauricio’s reputation and experience will be a real asset to Initiative as we further develop the network. Working directly with our functions and market leaders, he will play a key part in taking Initiative forward as a leading communications business.”

He added: “We are moving forward as a highly-connected network of centres of local excellence and look forward to unveiling more developments that will provide our clients with sustainable advantage.”

In addition, Sabogal will also assume the role of Mediabrands president Latin America and will work closely with Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Mediabrands to further enhance business performance and offer executive level support across the region.

Initiative had also created the new role of president, worldwide clients, and has appointed Janet Fitzpatrick, formerly worldwide director of communication, to the role.

Joining Fitzpatrick in the new worldwide client function is Erin Flaxman who has been promoted from director, business development at Initiative USA, to worldwide client director. Sarah Ivey, director of communication planning, worldwide, at Initiative, will now take on Fitzpatrick’s strategic planning responsibilities.

Initiative has further created a chief technology catalyst role with Karin Baatsch-Deboulet, director of worldwide operations, stepping up to take on this responsibility.