Wunderman Appoints Haydn Townsend As Group CEO Of South Africa

Townsend, a self-proclaimed "cross-functional" marketer, brings more than 20 years of experience to the role. He will oversee the entirety of Wunderman's South African operations, which employ over 400 people across Wunderman-owned companies including Aqua, Applogix, Base Two and Cerebra. In addition, Townsend will be responsible for expanding the agency's regional footprint with a particular emphasis on growing clients' businesses through the strategic use of data and digital marketing. The group's local clients include cellular network provider MTN, Standard Bank, Coca-Cola, Shell Global, DSTV Africa and Mercedes Benz, among others.

"After only six months at Wunderman, Haydn has really stepped up to drive our momentum in South Africa," said Mel Edwards, CEO of Wunderman EMEA. "I am thrilled he's agreed to take on a larger role in building our success. His entrepreneurial mind and diverse background are well suited to the job and will be instrumental for us as we continue to grow our offering throughout the region."

"We have an incredible team here in South Africa and I'm inspired by the ideas and results we're delivering to our clients every day," said Townsend. "I believe there is a tremendous opportunity for Wunderman to drive digital transformation and I'm excited to help bring our Creatively Driven. Data Inspired. message to the market in a much larger capacity."

Townsend has an extensive background in marketing communications. Prior to joining Wunderman, Townsend served as Deputy Managing Director at Ogilvy Johannesburg, Executive Director of Strategy at The Jupiter Drawing Room and Chief Executive Officer at Trinergy Brand Connectors. Most recently, he launched a new type of creative agency called Pangea Ultima where he pioneered a model of creative collaboration that gives clients access to young creative hot-shops while still providing larger scale ideation, strategy and management. Townsend holds a Chartered Marketer qualification from the Graduate School of Marketing, a bachelor's degree in Psychology as well as a post graduate diploma in advertising from AAA School of Advertising.

About Wunderman
Wunderman is Creatively Driven. Data Inspired. A leading global digital agency, Wunderman combines creativity and data into work that inspires people to take action and delivers results for brands. In 2015, industry analysts named Wunderman a leader in marketing database operations as well as a strong performer in customer engagement strategy. Headquartered in New York, the agency brings together 7,000 creatives, data scientists, strategists and technologists in 175 offices in 60 markets. Wunderman is a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY). For more information, please visit www.wunderman.com and follow us @Wunderman.

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