Frank-Peter Lortz Appointed as CEO of Publicis Communications Germany

Publicis Groupe Germany has appointed Frank-Peter Lortz, CEO Publicis Media DACH, to lead Publicis Communications Germany, in addition to his current remit. Lortz will assume his new position with immediate effect. 

Lortz, who joined Publicis Media in 1994, will be responsible for leading both organisations and their respective and separate leadership teams. Lortz will report to CEO, Publicis Groupe DACH and chairman of Publicis Emil, Justin Billingsley, and work with him to strategically review how to further accelerate integration of Publicis operations in Germany.

Lortz has worked across most of the solutions hub agency brands including Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Digitas and Performics. Lortz held CEO roles across Zenith and VivaKi before taking the role as CEO Publicis Media DACH in 2016. He has worked with international clients within Publicis Groupe including L’Oréal, Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser, Telefónica O2 and Toyota and led the Data Sciences practice across EMEA in the founding years. Lortz successfully expedited the transformation of Publicis Media in his region by developing new services beyond media and the acquisition of several agencies.

Lortz’s role takes immediate effect and includes a handover period with Horst Wagner, chairman of Publicis Communications Germany, who has decided to leave the company in the coming months after seven years to pursue new challenges outside of Publicis. Wagner had joined Publicis in 2012 in the context of the acquisition of Pixelpark AG. In 2017, Wagner was appointed chairman of Publicis Communications Germany, which includes the agency brands Publicis Pixelpark, Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, MetaDesign, MSL and Prodigious. 

Justin Billingsley, Publicis Groupe CEO DACH and chairman of Publicis Emil, commented: “It is great to have a leader like Frank-Peter in our team. He has consistently shown the ability to partner with clients and to drive innovation and growth. In this expanded role, he will be well positioned to accelerate our own transformation. I am looking forward to working with him more closely in the next stage of our journey.” 

“I would like to thank Horst for his hard work and outstanding service at the helm of Publicis Communications and in the years before. Under his leadership, we have made substantial progress in the transformation our agency group and establishing our country model.” 

Frank-Peter added: “We are in exciting times. Our industry is changing dramatically. With the Power of One model, Publicis has the right strategy in place to successfully drive transformation for our clients. I'm proud and happy to get the chance to build that model together with a fantastic team here in Germany.”