Havas has announced the stepping down of Simone Gupta, CEO of Havas PR Australia.
Havas said Gupta has decided to leave the company to pursue a personal project.
Under Gupta’s leadership, One Green Bean, Red Havas and Havas Blvd have continued to grow as leading agencies. In addition, in 2021 Gupta successfully launched specialist entertainment communications agency Organic Pacific.
Gupta has been a leader of integration, innovation and DE&I across Havas Village, which she has co-captained with fellow CEOs, Laura Aldington and Virginia Hyland.
Havas will announce new leadership for the Havas PR teams soon, in the meantime, the teams at One Green Bean, Red Havas, Havas Blvd and Organic will report directly into James Wright, global chairman of the Havas PR Global Collective.
James Wright, said, “We have known about Sim’s plans for a while now and are very appreciative of the strong leadership that Simone has consistently delivered over her time at Havas.
“I have always enjoyed the relationship we built together as we continued to lead and evolve in the Australian PR landscape with our great agency brands and client work. We wish her the very best with her new project.”
In September this year, Red Havas Australia announced the reshaping of its leadership team to reflect local opportunities and its global focus on key growth areas.
These areas included; health and wellness, corporate PR and reputation management, technology and e-commerce, consumer, and lifestyle, automotive and mobility, travel and hospitality and employee engagement.
Gupta said at the time: “Over the past 18 months myself and Steve have taken the Red Havas senior leadership team in Australia through a number of changes, to ensure we are future fit in this transformed world to grow the business and changing needs of clients.
“The deep expertise and experience of this leadership team reflects key areas of opportunity and growth, and enables us to attract the best talent,” she added.
Gupta will leave Havas Group in November.