UM hires former Havas Media MD in senior role

UM has grown its senior leadership team with the appointment of Natasha Murray as chief client officer.

Reporting to UM chief executive Rachel Forde, she will work with clients to help them incorporate long-term ambitions into their commercial strategies, which UM describes as “delivering future-fit blueprints”.

Murray will also have the task of building multi-disciplinary teams at the agency to work on tailored solutions for clients.

She joins from Newsworks, the marketing body for news brands, where she was client lead for its Team Nation alliance between news industry publishers. Team Nation worked with the Cabinet Office and Manning Gottlieb OMD’s OmniGov.

Prior to that she spent more than four years as director of client partnerships at Guardian News and Media and 16 years at Havas Media UK and its forerunner, MPG. She held leadership positions at Havas Media (managing director) and MPG (managing partner).

“We’ve got a full and thriving management team focused on taking UM and our clients to the next level, and in Natasha, we have someone who is totally aligned to our future-fit approach to our clients’ businesses,” Forde said. 

“She’s one of the leading lights of our industry – her work with the IPA, Nabs and WACL demonstrates the level of commitment she has shown over the course of her career. We are really excited about the impact she will have on our clients’ business as well as the agency as a whole.”

Murray added: “I can’t wait to get back to agency life and UM’s energy for its clients, its talent and the industry in general has been a big pull.” 

In this year’s Campaign School Reports, UM was ranked 15th top media agency with annual billings of £203m, down 21% on the previous year. In the past 18 months, UM has won business from Purplebricks, Enterprise Holdings, Emirates, Energizer, Dr Martens and Photobox.