Publicis Communications Makes Executive Appointments in the Nordics

Publicis Communications has named Alexander Peitersen as CEO of the Nordics region, effective immediately.   Peitersen has been with Publicis Groupe since 2001 and was previously CEO of Publicis in Denmark. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of the Publicis Worldwide agency, Reputation. He has headed past agency transformations in Russia, Denmark and Finland for Publicis Worldwide. 

Peitersen, together with Cathrine Toubal who will join as the Chief Talent Officer in the Nordics in February, and Nordics CFO Astri Garshol, will form the regional leadership team for Publicis Communications in the Nordics.  As one of the four solutions hubs of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40], Publicis Communications unites the Groupe’s creative offering. Publicis Communications in the Nordics includes agencies Kitchen in Norway, Reputation in Denmark and Finland, Saatchi & Saatchi in Sweden and Denmark, MSLGROUP in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland and Prodigious in Sweden and Denmark.

The leaders of these units will report to Peitersen who will in turn report to Justin Billingsley, Chief Operating Officer of Publicis Communications.  Peitersen takes on this role from Guillaume Herbette who will now concentrate on his primary responsibilities of Global CEO at MSLGROUP.

Christian Madsen, currently Client Services Director and a partner at Reputation, will succeed Peitersen as CEO of Reputation Copenhagen.

Cathrine Toubal’s role will be to further build and nurture the individuals and teams across the Nordic agencies. She comes with solid experience from HR positions at PQR, Åhlèns and Hays. 

Billingsley said, “We have put in place a strong leadership team that will create the best possible conditions for our business in the Nordics to grow and work well together, leveraging the resources of the entire Groupe.  Alexander and Cathrine will help us in our effort to tear down silos to drive 

integration, and to simplify the way our clients access the best communications and marketing technology solutions across the Groupe and across the region.” 

Peitersen said, “I am thrilled to take on this exciting role. Companies are facing big changes in their business models, and through our alchemy of creativity and technology we are a strong partner to offer end-to-end platforms to transform our clients’ business. The world class brands headquartered in the Nordics will benefit from our unique local strength combined with our global ‘Power of One’ approach.”

Herbette said, “Alexander has demonstrated strong leadership and management skills and his experience runs across the communications disciplines.  Under his leadership, the Publicis Communications operations in the Nordics will continue to grow in a strong way.”

Publicis Communications ambition is to be the indispensable creative partner to its clients in their own transformation, by delivering seamless access to the creative firepower of our networks through end-to-end platforms linking consumer insight, brand knowledge and creative ideas, boosted by data and technology. Its strong collaborative ‘Power of One’ model that unleashes seamless access to world-class creativity, knowledge and technology has been the basis for a series of new global client wins such as Porsche, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, GSK, Walmart, Jim Beam and others.