WPP’s Government and Public Sector Practice announce the appointment of Sean Howard to the role of Global Managing Director. The Government Practice works with government policymakers and communicators worldwide to help them deliver their policy objectives.
Since launching in 2012, The Government Practice established WPP Executive Education programmes in Government Communications and Behaviour Change at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. And this year, published The Leaders’ Report at The World Economic Forum in Davos, providing the first global benchmark of government communications capability.
The Government Practice CEO Dr. Michelle Harrison said, “Sean’s proven track record in converting complex, large-scale contracts with horizontal, multi-disciplinary teams will be a real asset to our future growth. As Global Managing Director, Sean will work with me to develop our largest pursuits, oversee our thought leadership programme and support The Government Practice regional leaders in ANZ, Singapore, India, the Middle East, the EU and the UK.”
Sean has been with WPP agencies since 2005, first joining Wunderman to help build the Seattle-based integrated Team Microsoft and lead the pitch to become T-Mobile’s agency of record. In 2012, he became Managing Director of Y&R New York, where he successfully led the pitch for the U.S. Navy’s – a $450+MM, 5-year contract that partnered six WPP agencies into a unified team serving the Navy in its recruiting and advertisingadvertising and recruiting effortsbusiness.
Sean will continue to advise the UShis current role on the U.S. Navy in his new role, as well as oversee the U.S. government business development efforts, drawing on 100+ WPP specialist agencies to build bespoke, horizontal teams for the Federal, State and Local governments. Of the appointment, Sean said, “I fundamentally believe that open, two-way communication between a government and its citizens is critical to the ongoing growth and prosperity of a nation. WPP’s vast and deep service offering across the marketing spectrum, free of internal silos normally associated with groups of marketing agencies, makes us the instinctive partner for governments to understand and engage with their citizens. I couldn’t be more thrilled than to help carry this message forward.”