Our Approach
We start by being honest about what real people want and what clients need to be successful. We design brand experiences that create value for people and inspire them to take action.
Michael Epstein, Global CEO of Starcom, is a distinguished leader with a proven track record of pushing boundaries, fostering growth and championing diversity in the industry.
Since joining Starcom in 2021, Michael has secured significant media agency of record victories, including AB InBev, McDonald’s, Aldi and Frontier Communications and expanded capabilities with long-standing clients, such as Kellogg’s. His leadership has driven the agency's impressive financial performance, with new business growth skyrocketing.
With over 24 years at Starcom, Kim Einan is a proven leader known for strategy, creativity and operationalizing change. She helps teams think differently and partners with them to create impact through action. As Global Chief Strategy Officer, Kim is responsible for Starcom’s global strategic discipline, supporting markets all over the world to share best practices and tools, identifying the most compelling insight-led opportunities for clients and integrating Starcom’s strategic community to provide more access and opportunity to the agency.
As Starcom’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Robert leads the brand strategy & narrative development, visual identity & communications, and all marketing across core paid, owned, and earned channels. He joined Starcom in mid-2022.
Previously, Robert was the Vice President, Brand Transformation at IBM, where he led and launched the global repositioning and branding efforts for IBM's services unit, IBM Consulting. Prior IBM, Robert was Global CMO of both Carat and Dentsu Media, re-launching multiple brands during his tenure.
Nick is a leader who is cross-functionally trained across three key industries, working in Advertising, Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) and Gaming. He has a combined 21 years’ experience growing national brands and managing international projects and operations. These include running transformational project teams in multiple jurisdictions around the world, providing a technical skillset that includes a diverse background in business development, corporate strategy, deal advisory, operations, Technology, digital/traditional media marketing and finance. Nick’s experience includes working in both PLCs and Private enterprises. He has led multi-million dollar eComm and CRM integrations, studying and applying methodologies such as Agile, Waterfall and Kanban. He is recognized by Boards for his authentic, upfront stakeholder management and collaborative style that motivates other team leads to grow the value of an organization through collaboration. Specialist expertise includes: Business Strategy, capital raising, Culture transformation, Point of Sale (POS) systems, loyalty programs/CRM, social media, eComm platform, mobile marketing, skill-based games, business development, social and internet retail marketing, real-money gaming, sports entertainment, company leadership, operations, P&L ownership, advertising, subscription and transactional business models, retail sales and marketing.
Starcom Canada’s President, Christine Saunders, joined the agency 12 years ago to run the Procter & Gamble AOR and never looked back. She has held increasingly senior responsibilities, most recently serving as EVP, Managing Director, juggling both Client Services and Business Development for Starcom and Spark Foundry Canada. Christine was an integral part of the Management team under Alastair Taylor that saw tremendous double digital organic and new business growth. Prior to joining the Publicis Groupe family, Christine worked at a number of different holding companies as a business lead, leading teams across strategy and activation across many industries, including consumer packaged goods, automotive and retail.
With a career spanning over 25 years in the advertising and media communications industries, Jessica has served in leadership positions across in-house and agency. Before joining Starcom, she led Mindshare China as Chief Client Officer. Her other notable previous experiences include holding senior management positions at OgilvyOne and IBM China.
Jessica’s rich experience in creative and media agencies and client-side space enables her to bring a uniquely integrated and multi-dimensional perspective. From FMCG dominants to high-tech giants, she has partnered with major brands, including Yili, Yum, Qualcomm, Master Kong Beverage, and Lincoln. Jessica is also a recognized female leader in the industry and was named Campaign’s Women to Watch in APAC in 2021.
Paul Boulange is the CEO of Starcom France and brings more than 17 years of strategic marketing leadership experience to the role. Prior to being named Starcom France’s CEO in 2018, Paul served as Managing Director where he was responsible for leading two of the office’s key clients: Coca-Cola and Samsung. An agency veteran, Paul was previously Digital Manager at Havas Worldwide Paris from 2013 -2015where heled EDF, Veolia and Paypal EMEA accounts. Before then, he served in a key leadership role at DDB Paris where he set up McDonald's digital e-commerce strategy and data platform for France and Southern Europe. Paul began his career as a marketing consultant specializing in telecommunications and spent six years at Full Six, where he worked on French and international clients such as Renault, Nokia, SNCF, TF1 and SFR. Paul also served as Head of Digital Academy for leading global insurer AXA.
With international and local experience in the media industry, Birgit is keen to drive innovation and a challenger mindset throughout the agency. With more than 25 years of experience in the media industry, Birgit joined Publicis Groupe in 2015. In 2017, she moved from Zenith (where she held the COO position) into her current new role at Starcom. Before her time at Publicis Media she was with Group M, and, prior to that, she was with MediaCom in an international role as Managing Director, EMEA for P&G, based in London. She was also at MEC (CEO, Germany) and Carat where she spent 12 years, half of this time as managing director, during which she built and established the Berlin office.
Rathi Gangappa is the Chief Executive Officer of Starcom India, one of the fastest growing agencies in India.
She is a media and brand communications specialist, with a rich experience of over 20 years across client, publisher and agency ecosystems. Her previous stints include GroupM and Vodafone among others.
Rathi has helmed high-profile brand campaigns on the client’s side and headed country-wide operations for media agencies. She has been in leadership roles, requiring an execution focus in complex cross-cultural environments, driving transformation programs, building capability, and nurturing talent.
She has always enjoyed celebrating creativity within media and has been an integral part of award-winning campaigns.
Magda Kolenkiewicz is the general manager of Starcom Poland. In 2004, she joined Starcom and has been responsible for clients including Kraft Foods Polska, Deichmann, ZT Kruszwica and Raiffeisen Polbank.
Magda was co-author of campaigns that were awarded and recognized during key Polish and international advertisement competitions, i.e., Festival of Media, Effie Awards and Media Trendy. One of her major professional successes was managing Milka’s social campaign called “Milka. Together for the Tatras,” the most awarded campaign in the history of the Media Trendy competition.
In 2017, Magda was a jury member at the Festival of Media Global and is a current jury member of the Euro Effie Awards.
Rita Gutierrez is CEO of Starcom Spain, a role that she has held since 2017. As Starcom Spain’s CEO, Rita is responsible for driving Starcom’s strategy, capabilities and growth. Rita joined Starcom in 2008 to lead and strengthen Starcom Barcelona’s presence, successfully managing teams and clients including Puig, Desigual, Asics, Ausonia & Arbora, Cadbury, Camper, Levi’s, Honda and Panrico. Prior to joining Starcom, Rita held positions at Havas in Madrid. Later she went on to form part of the founding team at Arena (Havas) servicing clients such as Banco Santander, Amena and Campofrio Food Group. When Arena won the Barcelona-based Seat/Vaesa account, Rita was part of the founding team of Arena in the Barcelona office, leading the Client Service teams. As client service director at Arena Barcelona, she also worked with Damm, Planeta and Yves Sant Laurent.
As CEO of Starcom UK, Nadine leads an integrated media team charged with delivering transformative models and ways of working. Prior to this, she spent nine years in New York, initially at Mindshare and then as CSO at Vizeum. Nadine has a proven track record of building and inspiring winning teams, and driving innovative agendas for clients at the highest level. Nadine is most driven by the chance to shape people’s careers; she loves mentoring whether in formal settings or one-to-one. She is a huge champion of gender equality and has been vocal on panels and in the trades on topics such as Top Strategies for Working Mothers. Nadine is mum to a gorgeous eight year old boy and spends most of her free time being told by him that that is not the correct way to build a Lego helicopter.
Camilla is the Managing Director of Starcom Norway. She has been in the industry for nearly two decades, working with digital media throughout all these years, within both agency and the publisher side. She has great leadership experience and are passionate about people, technology and business. In 2018, she received the Honorary Award by INMA, for being an inspiration to the industry, making the complex simpler.
Caterina comes with 19 years of rich media experience. She is currently Head of Strategy for Starcom Greater China, working across all its major clients and with a diverse experience that spans from FMCG to automotive to finance to luxury. Caterina has a deep experience of the Chinese market and consumers dynamics, which started in 2010 in Shanghai, where she first joined as the Director of Human Experience Strategy for Starcom, and where she has been since bringing her strong leadership and expertise across key clients.
Rajiv has a rich two decades of working experience in media planning, strategy, and implementation.
In his career span, he has led teams in India and internationally. He has contributed to the growth of brands like Coca-Cola, P&G, Asian Paints and Dabur.
At Starcom, Rajiv looks after the strategy and growth initiatives. He closely works on new business development and drives the HX planning process within the organization. Rajiv is also a part of the Global Product Acceleration Team & Global Strategy Council.
Earlier to Starcom, Rajiv has been a part of Mindshare, Madison and Mediacom.
Niti is an experienced media and marketing professional with two decades of rich experience in media planning, marketing, digital and media investment management. In her career span, she has worked across a variety of categories like Publishing, FMCG, Telecom, Automobiles, Garments and BFSI. At Starcom, Niti is the Chief Operating Officer and oversees all client deliverables and business growth for the agency in India.
Previous to Starcom, Niti was the Senior Vice President at Penguin Random House India, where she spearheaded marketing along with the digital and data initiatives of the organisation; including over-seeing the marketing for 300+ titles, setting up the in-house performance marketing specialisation and also the audiobooks, ebooks and video rights businesses.
A graduate from MICA, she has worked in leadership roles at GroupM (Managing Partner North & East at Mediacom) , Mudra Communications (Office Head, Media, Delhi & Kolkata) and at Lodestar.
Niti has closely led and managed media investments and strategy for global and local businesses like Mars Wrigley, Shell Plc, Makemytrip.com, Gillette, Amway and Reckitt Benckiser, to name a few. She is passionate about the consumer stories that lay hidden in data and has a strong track record of driving business growth and building strong teams.
Niti has been a TEDX speaker, featured in Top 30 under 30 and Top 40 under 40 industry lists and works with various online forums to mentor young women wanting to build careers in content and communications.
In his career, Navin has acquired an amalgamation of both planning & buying skills while working with some of the best marketing organizations. In his current role at Starcom, he is focused on driving a buying culture that is best-of-class in rates, rigour, fairness and trust.
He has earlier worked with renowned groups – Mondelez with Carat Media Services, Maxus and Madison Media and handled clients like Vodafone, L’Oreal and Marico.
Navin can best be termed as the ‘FMCG guy’ who brings in the data precision as well as marketing solutions for the brands. He has closely worked on various audits and thus understands the need to bring in ROI for all the clients.
Anil is a Digital and Mobile marketing professional with 16+ years of experience in the media and tech industry. At Starcom, he is responsible for driving the digital team by executing business development, operations, team management and delivering quality and profit-oriented performance for the division.
Anil has a proven track record of building and developing high performing digital teams and solutions ranging from full-funnel data-led planning to measurement, attribution and monetization.
In his career, Shankar has worked with leading media companies such as WPP, GroupM, Affle & Times Internet. His experience is across verticals like FMCG, BFSI, Telcos & Ecommerce and has worked on renowned brands like Pepsi, GSK, RSPL, Citibank, Paytm, Airtel, Uninor, Reliance, BMS, Flipkart, Amazon and Shopclues to name a few.
With 17 years of experience, Gautam has worked in media planning for a host of clients across India and international markets.
In his current role at Starcom, he leads solutions for clients like JEEP, AXIS BANK, ZYDUS WELLNESS, GODREJ & BOYCE, LENSKART, NYKAA, to name a few. A focus on using multimedia most effectively across the consumer journey is what keeps him occupied in contemporary times.
Gautam played a pivotal role in the deployment & localization of TARDIIS (Publicis Media’s proprietary TV Optimizer in India) and a few other tools.
From 2003 to 2008, he cut his teeth in media as a part of SMG India’s P&G Planning AOR team and has worked on Detergents, Shampoos & Sanitary Napkins.
He spent 4 years in SMG’s Guangzhou office on the P&G business, where he was leading the planning for 3 large categories. He was also involved in the digital transition of Pampers in China and moving the brand from a single-digit percentage to excess of 25 percent.
Before his media career, Gautam was a Thermal Plant Engineer for 3 years at Neyveli Thermal Power Corporation (NTPL).
Giorgio has a technological background and a professional path in consulting, during which he has developed important transversal skills in customer experience, with a holistic strategic and customer-centric thinking.
He comes from Alkemy, a company born to support the business evolution of clients in the digital era, where he contributed to the growth of the company since its foundation. Previously he worked in Between, a consulting company later merged into EY.
Cristina has many years of experience in Marketing, Data & Programmatic in companies such as H3G, Zodiak and Weborama.
Cristina has been working in the Group since 2015, where she held different roles in the digital area coming to create the Hub Digital to support all the agencies of the Groupe.
Her role in Publicis Groupe has been fundamental in the creation, organization and management of the Hub, as well as in the development of different internal start-ups leading them to success, such as the EMEA Programmatic HUB for Fca, and of innovative products and solutions on different media, from DOOH to radio and TV.
Laura is Barcelona’s Client Services Director. She has been one of the major pillars at Starcom for the last 12 years. She feels the ‘Human’ component of Starcom’s philosophy is in her veins. She is in charge of transferring the Human Experience focus to all brands and teams within the company.
Miguel has two different roles within Starcom. He is our Head of Digital, in charge of everything related to online media -from strategy to negotiation- and also leads marketing department to make our brand bigger. More than 15 years working in different areas of communications, mostly digital, give him a wide perspective to drive Starcom’s continuous transformation.
“It’s always about the people. Our minds and routines are more digitalized than ever. We need to know what they want and how they want it to stand out."
José leads the global relationship between Starcom and Puig in over 60 countries around the world. José has an ample experience working across markets, continents and sectors, which makes him fluent in solving marketing needs no matter where.
Esther is in charge of both Starcom’s service quality and clients’ strategies; the aforementioned combined with the implementation of Data and Technology. With a global profile, she has been developing her high specialization through global and local clients across all categories and products in the Starcom’s network. She worked for over 25 years in categories such as FMCG, Technology, Automotive or Finance, where she managed a global vision of client’s needs.
Trinidad is the Head of Planning & Optimization at Starcom. Her work focuses on activation, tracking and invoicing all Clients campaigns. In addition, as a member of the Systems Committee, she collaborates in tools creations & improvement in order to cover our client’s needs. Her role is crucial. More than 29 years in the advertising sector-both in Client Services and Planning areas has enabled a deep knowledge of the process and its implications.
Carlos leads communication and strategic planning, building brands through the power of media and designing integrated touch points and cross media communication plans. He provides new connection solutions delivering inspiration in communication consultancy. He worked for over 12 years in categories such as FMCG, technology, automotive, luxury and finance, among others.
Óscar is the Head of Trading at Starcom being the link between PMX and the brand. Obtaining the best results in terms of competitiveness and profitability for Starcom’s clients is his duty. More than 22 years working as advertiser, media or agency gave him a wide vision of our industry so that he is able to put himself in one place or another, when necessary. Telecommunications, technology, finance, automotive or FMCG are some of the categories he knows the best.
María leads the daily management of the business, establishing solid relationships with clients, as a liaison with them. She also is responsible for selling new ideas and solutions to Starcom’s clients. She works to contribute to the growth of the client's business by identifying new opportunities. He worked for more than 20 years in all categories within the business; therefore, she ensures strong integration throughout the organization.
Isabelle Baas is Starcom UK’s Managing Partner of Digital, Data & Tech Strategy. She is responsible for underpinning Starcom’s Human Experience positioning with data and technology to help Starcom understand people better than anyone, design the right experiences and drive business growth for clients. Working alongside client leads, Isabelle works with agency clients to define and deploy marketing and business transformation agendas so brands deliver effective meaningful connections with consumers at the right ROI. She has 20 years’ experience as a digital marketer, spanning both agency and client side across digital marketing, data analytics and technology strategy. Prior to her tenure at Starcom, Isabelle was part of the leadership team that launched the iProspect brand in the UK –part of the Dentsu Aegis Network –where she led operations and product development and drove the tremendous growth of the agency’s SEO, Social, Data and Technology divisions. Earlier in her career, Isabelle held roles at leading brands including Tesco and T-Mobile.
As Managing Director of Starcom UK, Richard is responsible for driving growth for the agency, alongside leading an integrated media team with CEO Nadine Young. Appointed in 2020, Richard has a wealth of experience leading large teams and is a great addition to Starcom’s leadership team. Prior to this, Richard was managing partner at Mediacom, where he was responsible for leading the UK planning function and brings multi-disciplinary experience across brands including TUI, Mars, Bayer, Groupe PSA and VW Group. His previous roles include Business Director at Vizeum UK leading accounts including BMW and Channel 5.
Richard is driven by the opportunity to help both Starcom’s clients and its people grow. He loves immersing himself in client business and building extensive knowledge of the challenges and opportunities that can lead to more effective marketing solutions. He is also a huge champion of future talent and believes the best work can only come from a truly diverse and empowered workforce. When not focused on Starcom, Richard’s time is dominated by his three favourite things – his family, his guitars, and the mountains.
John has been in his current role as Head of Investment since March 2018. Previously, John worked at PMX negotiating the AV deals across Zenith, Spark, Starcom and Blue 449 (now Spark Foundry). Previous to this John worked at Zenith where he was Head of Investment.He cut his teeth working in the TV department at Zenith where he worked on L’Oréal, Reckitt Benckiser and KFC. He became Head of TV in 2004 and was then made Head of Investment in 2010.John is very competitive and loves a challenge. He has completed three London marathons and several triathlons. His recent achievements of which he is most proud is climbing Mont Blanc and completing his first Ironman. He is happily married with two teenage children.John understands the media market place and puts a lot of emphasis on his trading relationships ensuring clients have best in class in terms of deals and innovation.
As Managing Partner of Performance and a results-driven specialist, Paul leads a world class UK Performics practice (a team of 100+ specialists) for Starcom in the UK, encompassing all digital performance marketing channels (PPC, Social, SEO and Acquisition). He has been with Publicis Groupe in various digital roles across the agency board for over 14 years across most verticals and client sizes (local start-up through to global). As part of his journey in driving a world class practice and proposition, Paul and his teams have won an impressive 18 specialist awards including the prestigious Grand Prix at the Performance Marketing Awards and continue to accelerate growth and capability as demonstrated across UK agency client wins; Ancestry.com, Trafalgar Travel Group and Dominos.Paul has recently found a passion for HIIT and reading Harry Potter along with his six-year-old daughter.
Emma has the pleasure of leading Starcom’s UK Investment team for Samsung across both Publicis Media Exchange (PMX) and Performics disciplines. Emma started her media career at ITV in a sales role over 20 years ago. She then moved across to the agency world and joined Mediacom in her first TV buying role working with the Universal Records portfolio in the main. When joining the Starcom family in 2002 as the only female in the TV team, her infectious energy, passion and determination to deliver exceptional communications for clients saw Emma’s role evolve and in 2011, she became Starcom UK’s first ever female Head of AV. Emma has worked across numerous categories and various brands over the years -from leading Barclaycard’s TV campaign ‘Too Much Month at the End of the Money’, Honda’s live skydiving ad on Channel 4 back in 2008, and more recently several successful handset and TV launches across all mediums for Samsung UK. Emma’s focus on delivering remarkable value and quality for clients has led to outstanding results across the board with recognition from clients, media partners and auditors for her contribution. When she’s not leading the good ship Samsung Investment you’ll find Emma with either her family or friends organising various trips and outings -living up to her nickname as Judith Chalmers and more often than not, being an incredibly mischievous Auntie (a duty she takes VERY seriously!).
Dan Plant is the Executive Head of Strategy at Starcom UK where he is responsible for turning Starcom’s Human Experience philosophy into real world experiences that consumers value. He is passionate about uncovering real insights into how consumers feel about brands in order to better connect with them and drive business results. Prior to his role at Starcom, Dan was the Global Strategy Partner at Wavemaker (formerly MEC) working on a wide range of globaland local accounts, including Netflix, Vodafone, Compare the Market, EE, Lloyds Bank and more. One of his biggest achievements was driving the media strategy for the launch of EE, the UK’s first 4G network –now the biggest one in the UK. Across the 20 years that Dan has been in the media industry, he has developed and rolled out a number of planning processes (at MEC and Vizeum) and has worked on over 100 different brands in over 20 categories as both a strategist and communications planner. Once upon a time he even did a bit of regional press buying!
Will Graves serves as Chief Financial Officer for Starcom U.S. He is a seasoned industry expert who is responsible for overseeing all financial aspects of the organization, including budgeting, financial planning and financial reporting.
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