Brian Lesser

Brian D. Lesser
Born1975
NationalityAmerican
EducationBA Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania (1996)
MBA from Columbia Business School (2004)
Occupationbusinessman
TitleXandr (CEO)
GroupM (CEO, 2015)
Xaxis (Founder, 2011)
24/7 Media (Vice President, 2006)
FatherMichael S. "Mike" Lesser
AwardsExecutive of the Year (AdWeek, 2018)
Advertising Age “40 Under 40” list (2014)

Brian D. Lesser is an American businessman who is the former CEO of Xandr and the incoming global CEO of GroupM, a WPP company.

Family and education

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Born about 1975,[1] Lesser was introduced to the advertising industry at an early age by his father, Michael S. "Mike" Lesser, who was chairman and CEO of Lowe Marschalk (later Lowe & Partners Inc.),[2] then president of Ogilvy & Mather New York.[3][4][5] Mike Lesser was also general manager of The November Group, the advertising arm of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, formed solely to create an ad campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election;[6] he was the inaugural lecturer, in September 2012, of Fairleigh Dickinson University's Politics on the Public Mind program.[7]

Lesser received a BA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, then earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2004.[citation needed] He resides in New Jersey with his wife and three children.[8]

Career

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In 2006, Lesser was vice president of 24/7 Media, then senior vice president of the Media Innovation Group, LLC (known as “The MIG”). In 2011, he founded Xaxis as a subsidiary of GroupM; he then became CEO of GroupM in November 2015,[9] overseeing six media agencies.[10]

In October 2017, Lesser was recruited by former GroupM client AT&T[11] as CEO of Advertising and Analytics.[9] In September 2018, Advertising and Analytics was renamed Xandr, and Lesser was appointed CEO.[12]

In 2014, Lesser was named to the Ad Age's “40 Under 40” list[1] and, in 2018, was recognized by AdWeek as "Executive of the Year".[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Meet Ad Age's 40 Under 40". Ad Age. Advertising Age. 2014-01-20. Archived from the original on 2017-07-04.
  2. ^ McDonough, John; Egolf, Karen (2002). The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. p. 1930. ISBN 1579581722.
  3. ^ Poggi, Jeanine (2018-09-10). "A HIGHER CALLING". Ad Age. Advertising Age. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  4. ^ Quenqua, Douglas (2015-06-11). "Q&A: New CEO Brian Lesser on GroupM's digital reinvention". CampaignLive. Haymarket Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  5. ^ "Xaxis' Lesser Followed The Paternal Path To Change Advertising". Beet.tv. Beet Media LLC. 2015-08-28. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  6. ^ Dougherty, Philip H. (1972-03-27). "Advertising". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  7. ^ Reba, Samantha (2012-10-04). "An FDU Mad Man Goes to Washington: Stories from the Nixon Re-Election Campaign". The Piller. Fairleigh Dickinson University. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  8. ^ "ExchangeWire Live in New York". Exchange Wire. 2017-03-22. Retrieved 2019-08-08.
  9. ^ a b "Brian D Lesser". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  10. ^ Oxfeld, Jesse (September 22, 2016). "Q+A: GroupM's Brian Lesser". Traffic. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  11. ^ Poggi, Jeanine (June 15, 2018). "AT&T'S BRIAN LESSER LAYS OUT HIS GRAND AD PLAN FOLLOWING THE TIME WARNER DEAL". Ad Age. Advertising Age. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  12. ^ "AT&T combines AppNexus with its own ad businesses to form Xandr". Ad News. September 26, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  13. ^ "2018's Digital Hot List: The Movers and Innovators That Got Us Excited This Year". Ad Age. Advertising Age. October 14, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
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