GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, today announced Sandy Welsch will join the company’s Global Commerce Executive team as Executive Director, Global Commerce Partnerships and Enablement.
Most recently, Welsch served as VP, of Omnichannel Platforms at Flywheel where he helped scale the business from its startup days by leading the company’s partnerships, ad-tech, and cross-channel retail media initiatives. Welsch first joined the company in 2017, leading Flywheel’s programmatic and omnichannel media efforts and building the company’s first programmatic media team, embracing the then emerging off-platform capabilities of Amazon DSP and The Trade Desk. He then helped to lead Flywheel through the retail media boom, driving its vision for omnichannel marketplace expansion through partnerships, technology integrations, and corporate strategy.
In this newly created role, Welsch will lead GroupM’s global commerce partnerships strategy, working with retailer, technology, and platform partners to accelerate differentiated advantages for the company’s clients that position them at the leading edge of commerce. He will partner closely with the commerce product team at Choreograph, GroupM’s team of data and technology specialists, to further accelerate the integration of partner capabilities into Open Media Studio and advance the company’s leading commerce technology position.
“Sandy is a commerce expert through and through and brings a tremendous amount of technical proficiency, experience, and strategic thinking to our team,” said Samantha Bukowski, GroupM’s Global Head of Commerce. “His vision for leading brands into the next era of commerce is deeply aligned with our own, and his relationships with key partners will facilitate a new level of innovation that will drive our clients’ growth in this rapidly evolving field.”
“The commerce landscape is moving so fast that unless you’re executing now against a sound vision for the future, you’re falling behind. What’s so impressive about GroupM is its ability to combine its global scale with a culture of agility and rapid development to move nimbly and stay ahead,” said Welsch. “We have all the pieces to not just help brands and manufacturers win in commerce today, but to innovate and lead in a way that disproportionately outpaces the market for our clients well into the future. Everything I’ve seen from the team is tremendously impressive and undoubtedly the blueprint for the future of commerce. I’m thrilled to join the team and put my expertise to work to take us to the next level.”
The addition of Welsch to GroupM’s commerce executive team follows the recent recognition of WPP as the industry leader in commerce services and GroupM’s announcement of strategic partnerships with Shalion and Incremental, both of which help to place retail data and technology at the heart of GroupM’s approach to media and marketing.
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