PPR has given its chief operating officer the best Christmas present possible. Michael Pooley has been made CEO for Australia and New Zealand. The appointment concludes a very solid year for PPR, which has won Woolworths, Subway, BWS and Colgate in the last 12 months.

Pooley has been COO for the last 3 three years, and has worked at PPR for 10, being promoted from director of strategy & planning to group director to general manager of the Sydney agency and then COO for ANZ. He has led some of the agency’s largest accounts, including Woolworths, Emirates and Subway.

Before joining PPR, Pooley spent a decade in London at Charles Barker BSMG Worldwide, Weber Shandwick and Four Communications. He led campaigns including bmi, Barclaycard and Fujitsu-Siemens.

Pooley will lead a team of consultants across six owned offices in Australia and New Zealand and will report to WPP AUNZ CEO PR & PA, Kieran Moore. He takes over from interim CEO, Katrina Brangwin, who successfully led the agency through a period of agency transformation.

“PPR is a great agency with a strong pedigree and the unique position of having local teams of experts across six cities in Australia and New Zealand,” Moore commented.

“WPP AUNZ has a lot of ambition for PPR and Michael matches that ambition.   He has a firm vision for the agency’s future, is committed to horizontality across the wider WPP AUNZ Group and his client skills are nothing short of excellent.  It’s a great privilege to be able to promote within the ranks of WPP and I look forward to working with him.”

Pooley added, “To have the opportunity to lead one of the most respected PR agencies in ANZ is an incredible privilege for me.  For the decade I have been with PPR, I have always understood the unique way in which PPR can help build bonds between brands and their communities.

“Our unique network of offices means brands who partner with us have access to insights and relationships into the markets and interest groups that matter because our teams physically live there. By living and breathing these communities it means they deeply understand how they work, live and play and can devise effective campaigns that resonate.

“I’m looking forward to taking this unrivalled offering to the next level by driving deeper connections between brands and communities based on insights, a channel agnostic approach and creative and effective thinking.”

PPR is also rolling out a new brand identity and positioning.