Management changes at Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett has appointed Jarek Ziebinski, current CEO of Leo Burnett Central and Eastern Europe, in charge of the Asia Pacific (excluding China) office. Ziebinski will take over from Michelle Kristula-Green, who has been named Global Head of HR (a position located in Burnett's Chicago headquarters). Patrick Venetucci, the company's existing Global Head of HR, will step up into a newly-created Deputy Chief Operating Officer role within the agency. A search is underway for a successor to Ziebinski.

During his tenure as president of Leo Burnett CEE, Ziebinski expanded the agency's geographical footprint from 11 to 16 countries, employing a total of 1,400 people. Over the last three years alone, he has increased the region's consolidated revenue by more than 60 per cent and doubled revenue in Russia. Under his leadership, Leo Burnett agencies in CEE were named Agency of the Year 42 times in their respective countries and won 13 Cannes Lions. Ziebinski himself has been named Ad Man of the Year and Ad Man of the Decade in Poland.

One of The Wall Street Journal's 'Women To Watch,' Kristula-Green was the first woman to run a multinational agency in Japan and the first woman to run an agency region in Asia. Under Kristula-Green's leadership, the region won Reliance and Tata Capital in India, AAPT in Australia, Sanofi Aventis in Korea and Japan, Philippine Airlines in Philippines and ING in Malaysia in the last 12 months, and also brought home the network's first Cannes Titanium for Earth Hour.

In addition to her business acumen, she is widely recognized by the agency network as a key driver of talent, having developed and implemented the agency's most recognized talent programs. Because of her demonstrated capacity to groom talent, Kristula-Green will serve on a Publicis Groupe consultancy HR board in addition to her role as Global Head of HR.

In his role as Global Head of HR, Venetucci reinvented the HR function by aligning the agency's business and people strategies and is widely credited for positively reshaping the way the agency handles compensation, development and talent management. Before this role, Venetucci worked in account management, where he led the development of integrated marketing and media campaigns for clients like General Motors, P&G and Philip Morris, among others.

Before that, in the late 1990's, Venetucci worked in the agency's Tokyo office, where he turned around their largest account, added several new accounts (including one of Japan's largest and most prestigious banks) and launched a new division to create digital campaigns for key clients. In his new role, Patrick will be charged with driving efficiency of Leo Burnett's global business strategy in key markets. He will hunt for global growth opportunities, optimize global operations and lead global business planning–all with a focus on making Leo Burnett's global operations run faster and better.