Mediaedge:CIA chief executive steps down

Mediaedge:CIA chief executive Fiona McAnena is stepping down from her post at the WPP-owned media agency to join WPP Group’s information, insight and consultancy division, Kantar.

Rob Norman, chief executive of Mediaedge:CIA subsidiary Outrider, is to take the reins at the agency as chairman. At the same time, former MindShare chief executive Mandy Pooler is joining Mediaedge:CIA as a non-executive director.

Mediaedge:CIA has suffered a string of UK account losses in the past 12 months, including Daewoo, Gap and Wrigley’s. It recently emerged that Saga was talking to agencies less than a year after reappointing Media-edge:CIA to its business.

McAnena was brought in from Added Value to run CIA, after it was acquired by WPP as part of Tempus. She also oversaw the merger of CIA with Mediaedge. She will join Kantar as development director, reporting to chief executive Eric Salama.

Part of her brief is to sell Kantar’s offerings, such as Added Value, BMRB and the Henley Centre, to WPP clients. Former Millward Brown managing director Rosi Ware will be vice-president of development and will report to McAnena.