GroupM Spain Appoints Sebastian Muriel, an Expert Executive in Digital Business, Culture, Transformation and Change Management into Leadership Position

New CEO of GroupM Spain, brings experience from Telefónica, Tuenti, Red.es and PwC
The appointment is effective 14 February 2022

MADRID (11 January 2022) — GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, today announced that Sebastian Muriel has been named GroupM Spain’s CEO, effective 14 February 2022. Muriel joins GroupM from Telefónica where from 2016 – 2022 he held the role of Global Director Customer Experience / Novum.

As GroupM Spain’s CEO, Muriel will focus on developing a highly diverse and fully inclusive culture, across all agencies, in which the team of 700 will thrive within the EMEA region. He will drive strong commercial outcomes through his people leadership skills, championing change and transformation to deliver results-based outcomes for clients, which ultimately make advertising work better for people.

Muriel will play a role in contributing to and leveraging WPP Spain’s business capabilities, by boosting close collaboration between all agencies within the network to make a more compelling end-to-end offer to existing and future clients in Spain.

Leveraging his background as a Senior Telecommunications Engineer, with solid experience in digital business and the transformation strategy of large corporations, Muriel will focus on implementing the most up-to-date resources and technologies across GroupM Spain. Creating a unified, stronger organisational structure, with a client-centric perspective, empowering agencies and disciplines to embrace a people-centric approach.

Sebastian Muriel, CEO GroupM Spain, said, “I am delighted to join GroupM Spain and enthusiastic to immerse myself into the business. I relish this challenge as an opportunity for development being a curious and open-minded avid learner. I am invested in the team’s growth as well as my own as a leader and business executive. I recognise and admire the performance of the current team, especially within the challenging environment of the global pandemic. At the same time, I am convinced that I will contribute to taking GroupM Spain to the next level with continued focus on responsible and inclusive media investment within the industry.”

As a CEO for the last 15 years, with roles under his belt at Telefónica, Tuenti Technologies, and Red.es (attached to the Secretariat of State for the Information Society and Digital Agenda, Ministry of Industry, Spain) Muriel has demonstrated his entrepreneur capabilities in transformation and growth, changing business models, building globalized and scaled organizations, with exceptional relationships at all levels. Highlights from his most recent role with Telefónica include driving exponential growth of +30 million active users in 8 countries (MiMovistar / MeuVivo / MyO2).

Demet Ikiler, CEO GroupM EMEA and WPP Country Chair, Turkey, “Sebastian brings a valuable global perspective, with a digital mindset. He is a versatile leader with a passion for creating cultures where high-performance teams thrive. I am confident that he will support and work with the GroupM Spain team in continuing to lead our transformation journey.”

Muriel will be based in GroupM’s Madrid office, part of the WPP Campus: La Matriz (Rios Rosas 26, Madrid 28003).