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| Mark Read |
Kantar Media has named former WPP chief Mark Read chairman.
Miami-based HIG Capital completed the $1.1B acquisition of the media measurement & analytics company from Bain Capital in August.
Read, a more than 30-year veteran of WPP, said Kantar Media plays “a unique and essential role in the media ecosystem. helping advertisers, agencies, media owners and platforms understand how people are consuming media and how best to direct their media investments.”
He looks forward to bringing greater clarity to the media ecosystem at a time when audience behavior is changing more rapidly than ever.
Patrick Béhar, CEO of Kantar Media, said Read “combines deep strategic thinking with practical experience in transformation, data and AI, and most importantly he shares our ambition to transform the industry by bringing clarity to a complex landscape.
Read helmed WPP for seven years before being replaced by Microsoft executive Cindy Rose in September.
WPP's stock has plunged this year, triggering speculation that is may be a takeover target. France's Havas has said that it is not in discussions with WPP.
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