GroupM parts ways with Vocanic founder Ian McKee
McKee
Ian McKee, the CEO of social media agency Vocanic, has suddenly departed the company he founded 11 years ago.
His departure comes just over two years after his firm was acquired by WPP GroupM to sit along side media agency brands Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare in Southeast Asia.
In a press release, Mark Patterson, the regional head of GroupM, said: “Ian has led Vocanic from the front with passion and commitment. He has spearheaded the integration of the business into GroupM and we of course thank him for managing that process and the development of the business across that period.”
“He will hand the baton to another leader in due course, and he moves on to his next challenge with our best wishes and thanks,” he said.
The press release stated that the new head of Vocanic would be soon be announced.
In a Facebook post today, McKee commented that it was a “strange feeling, sadness to leave something you have put 11 years of your life into and to leave a great team of people, excitement at the opportunities that lay ahead.”
“It’s been a great privilege to work with many great people client-side and in the Vocanic team and I hope we can stay in touch,” he wrote.
Love the “suddenly”. Yes, all networks suddenly put their CEOs on gardening leave without a successor and issue a tightly worded press release. The news from the people here on what actually happened has been making the rounds but we all can’t really say anything officially can we but there are a lot of happy folks out there. Stay tuned… (and the really bad glamour shot picture Mumbrella used is just wicked)
ReplyVocanic is in shambles – many accounts rumoured to leave. GroupM must be quite happy about their acquisition.
ReplyI interviewed there once and got fed the whole cock and bull. Of course they didn’t have an HR department so the Head of IT was in charge of it. So happy i passed on it as they didn’t have a plan, it was chaos, and i didn’t see any evidence of them having any kind of real resources to get shit done right.
@Social pariah why not tell us the real story already…
ReplyHave to say what goes around, comes around. I don’t want to dance on his Vocanic career grave but it’s hard not to feel like doing a salsa. Ian needs to take a hard look at his values and behaviours. Nothing is more important than reputation- and he has not nurtured his.
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