GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, announced that Adam Gerhart had been named Mindshare Global CEO, effective January 2021. He brings global experience with multinational brands, including deep expertise in building innovative partnership models and new ways of leveraging media to solve business challenges. Gerhart, who will serve on GroupM’s Global Leadership Team (GLT), also maintains his Mindshare U.S. CEO role until a successor is named.
As Global CEO, Gerhart’s remit includes the strategy and operations of the award-winning global agency network that spans across 86 countries and the agency’s nearly 10,000 colleagues’ professional development. With a strong belief in media as a business driver for brands, Gerhart’s vision elevates the strategic role media can play in creating purpose and growth. That vision also encompasses data and insights that influence broader brand opportunities like product development, sales, and marketing, among others.
“Adam has an unrelenting commitment to clients and team Mindshare,” said Christian Juhl, GroupM Global CEO. “He brings a strategic business sense combined with a commitment to clients and culture. Adam has always played a pivotal role in Mindshare and our clients’ success around the world, which makes him the perfect fit to now lead the agency into a new era globally.”
Mindshare manages $24 billion in media investment billings globally (COMvergence, 2019). This year, Mindshare topped COMvergence’s global new business barometer for the first half of 2020, with GroupM also taking the number one spot for the global media agency group.
“One of this agency’s greatest strengths has long been its connected global network. The opportunity to lead this incredible group of people leaves me without words to describe my pride and excitement,” says Adam Gerhart, Global CEO, Mindshare. “Media strategy is often defined narrowly, yet its dynamism and creativity can impact the trajectory of a company’s business success. As we work to bring ‘Provocation with Purpose’ to life, we’ll demonstrate how media can solve brand challenges, as well as have a positive impact on the world.”
Previously, Gerhart served as CEO of Mindshare U.S., where he led media innovations in areas such as neuroscience (the first in-house NeuroLab of its kind for a media agency), investment (the first Inclusion Private Marketplace series for a U.S. media agency, including LGBTQ and Black voices and publishers), voice commerce, audio strategies, and more.
In the last 18 months, Mindshare has been honored with Ad Age’s Agency A-List, MediaPost’s Media Agency of the Year, WARC 100’s Top Agency Network, Cannes Lions’ Media Network of the Year, and the leading winner in the MMA’s SMARTIES X Awards.
Gerhart joined Mindshare in 2003 and quickly rose through its ranks, becoming U.S. CEO in 2016. Over the years, he’s helped build and grow the agency’s client portfolio across a range of global brands. Early in his Mindshare tenure, he was a founding member of Mindshare’s U.S. Communications Planning Group, a specialist team dedicated to bringing multi-disciplinary thinking to clients’ communications needs.
Throughout his time at Mindshare, Gerhart has been to 56 countries on behalf of clients and has been a leading force and voice in sharing the global Mindshare culture of provocation, speed, and teamwork. He’s been an active member of The International Advertising Association and previously on the boards of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in Europe and thinkLA in the U.S. Gerhart was also honored as one of The Internationalist’s 2016 Agency Innovators for his forward-thinking global achievements.
