Sharb Farjami will take the reins of the North American operations of GroupM, the media-investment giant that is part of WPP.
Farjami had been CEO of North American for Wavemaker, one of the big media-buying units of GroupM. “Sharb is a hands-on, collaborative leader and a brilliant thinker about the issues shaping the future of our industry,” said GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl, in a statement. “He brings a diverse range of industry experience to the role having worked both agency and publisher-side in multiple markets around the world and his success leveraging the best of the GroupM platform to drive advantages for Wavemaker’s clients is a model for the future of our organization.”
GroupM said Farjami has “proven track record of scaling new media offerings, operationalizing new capabilities, and leading technology enabled organizations to deliver competitive differentiation for clients.” Prior to joining Wavemaker, Sharb held senior leadership positions at Foxtel, News Corp, and Viacom.
“GroupM is well positioned to help our clients in North America do more with their media investments, elevate the role of marketing, and ultimately exceed their business objectives.” said Farjami, in a statement. “As we embark on our next phase of transformation, I feel a great sense of privilege and responsibility to help accelerate our innovation on behalf of our clients who entrust us to shape the future of our industry on their behalf.
Farjami succeeds Adam Gerhart, who had been serving as CEO of GroupM North America on an interim basis. He will continue his role at GroupM agency Mindshare, where he is the CEO of global operations. GroupM’s North American business has been without a permanent executive at the helm since Kirk McDonald, who joined GroupM in 2020 after a stint at the ad-tech unit known as Xandr, exited.
Farjami will continue to oversee Wavemaker in North America until a replacement is identified.
GroupM is one of the most influential media-buying operations in the world and its agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom, and MSix represent billions in annual media investment from large marketers including Adobe, Audible, DoorDash, Google, NBCUniversal and Unilever.
