Carat USA chief client officer Michael Epstein will now take on additional duties as president, a role previously held by CEO Doug Ray, Adweek reports.
Ray needed previously held the role of global president as well, but that title was passed on to London-based Will Swayne in January, with Carat claiming that the media agency’s recent growth necessitated the transfer of responsibilities so that Ray could concentrate on his role as CEO. This latest transition was likely made with a similar rationale.
Epstein joined Carat USA as chief strategy officer in May of 2013 and was appointed chief client officer in September of 2014. Before joining Carat, he spent a little over a year as president, strategic resource and client services, North America with Mindshare. Epstein originally joined Mindshare back in December of 2000 as an associate planning director/group planning director. He was named a senior partner a little over two years later and worked his way up from group planning director to strategic planning director, managing director for Team Unilever U.S. and then Team Unilver North America before being promoted to president, strategic resource and client services, North America in March of 2012. Prior to joining Mindshare, he spent a year and a half with Ogilvy & Mather as media planner/planning supervisor.
“Michael has shown an unparalleled ability to not only drive our product agenda, but do so with our clients’ business interests front and center,” said Ray. “This has made him a trusted partner for our internal teams and clients alike.”