WPP’s Coca-Cola Agency Head, Laurent Ezekiel, Joins Publicis Groupe

WPP’s chief marketing officer and CEO of its bespoke Coca-Cola agency Open X, Laurent Ezekiel, is leaving the company to re-join Publicis Groupe.

Laurent’s departure was confirmed in an internal memo from Coca-Cola’s global CMO, Manuel ‘Manolo’ Arroyo, which was reported in other publications. Details of his new role at Publicis Groupe have not yet been disclosed.

Laurent originally joined WPP from Publicis in 2019, taking on the global CMO role after 16 years within Publicis. He later became CEO of Open X following WPP’s major Coca-Cola win in 2021, where he led the development of a unified model across creative, media, production, social, influencer, and other disciplines.

His return to Publicis comes in the wake of several key account shifts. In March, Coca-Cola moved its North American media account from WPP to Publicis – part of a $700 million consolidation. Mars appointed the same holding company to handle its $1.7 billion global media account, and Paramount also made the same switch.

Despite the North American media loss, Coca-Cola reaffirmed its partnership with WPP in May, renewing its broader relationship and highlighting initiatives such as Studio X, a production hub used to deliver localised marketing assets at scale.

In the memo to Coca-Cola teams, it is reported that Manuel praised Laurent for helping to “architect” the Open X model and for building an “integrated agile modern marketing team” that brought together talent from across WPP’s leading agencies and markets.

A WPP spokesperson told LBB that “a successor will be announced shortly”. Manuel’s memo expressed confidence in the future of the OpenX model.

The move marks another high-profile leadership change for WPP. Earlier this month, the holding company issued a profit warning amid slowing client spend and new business challenges. WPP CEO Mark Read is set to step down in September, with Microsoft’s Cindy Rose named as his successor.