Members of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) have unanimously voted David Wheldon, Managing Director, Brand, Reputation Citizenship and Marketing at Barclays Bank, as their new president. Earlier the post was held by Martin Riley, the former CMO of Pernod Ricard.
His appointment was announced at the WFA’s Annual General Meeting, held in Marrakech as part of the WFA’s annual Global Marketer Week, which is being held in Africa for the first time. He will hold the post of WFA President for two years.
Mr Wheldon carries with him extensive experience with working at both the agency and client side. He recently spent time at Vodafone, where he was Global Brand Director, and Coca-Cola, where he was Vice-President of Advertising as well as holding senior roles in both full-service agencies such as Lowe Howard-Spink and BBDO Europe and media agencies such as Tempus.
“The WFA plays a critical role in our industry in representing marketers’ interests, standing up for what’s best about marketing and helping marketers be more effective and efficient. The organization is experiencing impressive growth from corporates and local advertiser associations, proof in itself of the relevance of the organization and its work. I look forward to helping to shape and drive the WFA agenda at a time where our industry is going through unprecedented change,” commented Mr Wheldon.
His appointment was welcomed by Stephan Loerke, Managing Director of the WFA. “We’re delighted to have David as our new President. He is one of the global industry’s most respected figures with enormous experience of working with some of the world’s biggest brands as well as agencies, something that is hugely beneficial as we start a deeper dialogue with advertising holding companies.”
WFA also announced new corporate members to its board which include Americo Campos Silva, Global Media Manager, Shell; Francisco Casa de Falguera, Chief Marketing Officer, Grupo Bimbo; Paloma Castro Martinez, Director of Global Corporate Affairs, LVMH; Damien Cummings, Chief Marketing Officer, Philips ASEAN & Pacific; Sameer Desai, Head of Consumer Healthcare, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Mundipharma; Thomas Holzapfel, Global Category Leader Marketing, Deutsche Telekom and Jean Jacques Velkeniers, VP Marketing for Europe, AB InBev. Sandra Martinelli, Executive Vice-President of the Brazilian Advertisers Association (ABA), also joins the board.
