Our news MEC North America bolsters Business Development Team

Monday 24 May 2010

MEC, a leading media agency (www.mecglobal.com), today announced the appointment of Stephanie Eller, as Managing Director, Marketing and Business Development.  In this newly expanded role, she will lead all marketing and business development functions for MEC in North America and will play a pivotal role in the agency’s global new business efforts. Stephanie will be based in New York and will report to CEO, North America, Lee Doyle. 

“I’m confident that Stephanie’s extensive experience in new business development for media and design agencies, as well as marketing strategy expertise on the client side, will bring valuable perspective to our business development efforts,” said Doyle.  “She has a long history of driving relationships and I know she will challenge us as we take our approach to the next level.”

Most recently, Stephanie was SVP, Director of Business Development & Marketing at MediaVest. Previously Stephanie was Worldwide Executive Development Director at WPP’s design company Fitch, where she was responsible for clients such as P&G, J&J, Walmart and Coca-Cola.

Said Eller, “MEC is a thriving media agency with a great story to tell especially around its innovative team and integrated offer.  There are numerous opportunities for growth in the region and I can’t wait to get started to help build on MEC’s very solid foundations.  It’s an exciting time to be in this business.”


The global media agency has also strengthened its management teams in key European markets over the last two months. In Italy, Alessandro Villoresi was appointed Chairman and Matteo Cardani and Luca Vergani as joint CEOs. In Paris, MEC France announced the appointment of Antoine Ripoche as Director, MEC Interaction and Christine Ducrest as Managing Director of Global Solutions France and as the global client lead for Chanel. And in Spain the agency announced Jordi Calvet as President MEC GroupM Spain and Esperanza Zaranz as Chief Operating Officer.

In the UK, MEC has been selected by the Department for Work and Pensions to handle its communications planning, and MEC Manchester has scooped new business from Shearings Group and the sponsorship account for SPAR UK, won without pitch from Fast Track.

In New York, after retaining IKEA and adding new client partner Michelin, MEC North America announced that Star Kalatzan has joined the agency as Managing Director, responsible for accounts including IKEA, Novartis, YUM! and Toys’R’Us, among others.  The North American operations also announced the launch of an integrated Analytics and Insight practice in North America, led by Yahoo!  veteran Theresa LaMontagne  in a newly created Managing Director position.  The new Analytics and Insight practice combines and integrates the agency’s media research, digital analytics, data integration and modeling teams to create on and offline continuity in data, analytics and insights. 

This string of announcements follows a successful three years for MEC around the world: the agency was ranked number one in RECMA’s Global Compitches report for 2009. The report is an analysis of 2,000 account moves and pitches across 289 media agencies in 20 countries, and confirms MEC’s successful new business results across multiple local markets.