Perth expat Michael Rebelo takes on CEO role at Publicis Groupe Australia and New Zealand

Publicis Groupe has today announced the appointment of Michael Rebelo as chief executive officer for ANZ.

Rebelo started his career in Perth before moving to Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney in 1997 and held various agency leadership roles in Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, London and Australia across the Saatchi & Saatchi network. In 2017, he was appointed as CEO Publicis Communications in ANZ.

In this newly created role, Rebelo’s responsibilities include driving greater integration across the Groupe’s capabilities to transform its relationship with existing clients and win the trust of new ones, to cultivate and attract the best talents across the Groupe’s agencies and disciplines, as well as improving its resources management across disciplines and solutions. In his role, Rebelo will be supported by solution hub leadership, John Preston, chairman of Publicis Media, and Sarah Adam-Gedge, managing director at Publicis.Sapient.

Says Loris Nold, Publicis Groupe CEO, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa: “I am incredibly excited with Mike’s appointment. He and I have partnered for years now and I am very confident that he will successfully drive our Groupe across these two exciting, strategic and highly sophisticated markets.

“Our strategy relies on two very important pillars: a solution-led approach and a country-led approach. This is to ensure that we accelerate on our global game changers while driving acceleration at a country level. The Power of One has generated some great examples of collaboration in Australia and New Zealand and it has transformed the way we work with our clients while bringing great opportunities to our people.

“With Mike at the helm, working closely with John and Sarah, we have the right team and the right model to accelerate in Australia and New Zealand.

“Last but not least, I want to congratulate Matt James for his appointment as global brand president, Zenith. Matt has been an incredible partner, working seamlessly with Mike, Henri, Pauly, Phil and I, and I can’t think of a better leader to take on this exciting new role.”

Says Rebelo: “I’m genuinely honoured to be taking on the role of CEO of Publicis Groupe for Australia and New Zealand. I’m also thrilled for Matt as he takes on his new global role and thank him for his partnership and collaboration these past couple of years.

“The Groupe Leadership Team and our agency leaders have created a genuine rhythm across the organisation when it comes to applying the ‘Power of One’ principles to clients, people and opportunities. We have set good foundations in Australia and New Zealand; there’s still more hard work ahead of us, but the possibilities we’ve been creating and will continue to create for our clients and agencies is currently unmatched in the market. That makes my new job uniquely exciting.”