M+C Saatchi Group appoints Karen Boswell as Global CEO, Digital Experience, Performance & Consulting
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Karen Boswell as Global CEO, Digital Experience, Performance & Consulting. She will officially join the business in July 2025, overseeing our media and consulting specialisms, as well as our growing Intelligence function and expanding focus in marketing technologies, including AI.
In her new role, Boswell will lead the strategic direction of data, technology, digital experience, digital media, and consulting across the Group. She will sit on the agency’s executive leadership team, managing the media and consulting P&Ls and driving integration across AI, product, digital, and data strategies to enhance our client services and fuel our Cultural Power proposition.
A truly client-centric leader, Boswell operates at the intersection of technology and brand-building. She joins from VML where she has been the global chief experience transformation officer, helping drive customer-centric holistic solutions for clients such as Boots UK & Ireland, Ford EU, Perrigo Global, BP Pulse Global and PwC Global. Prior to that, she was chief experience officer EMEA at VML, MD of The Pharm, WPP - a fully integrated and dedicated agency built to service Boots and No7, head of innovation at adam&eveDDB, and held major roles as both an account lead and as a strategy lead at agencies such as AKQA and LBi. She is also a qualified executive coach.
Zaid Al-Qassab, CEO, M+C Saatchi Group, said: ‘Karen is a truly client-centric leader, with a deep understanding of how to combine data, creativity, and technology to drive transformative growth. Her appointment is a powerful step forward in realising our ambition to keep our clients at the cutting edge of marketing innovation. She will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our regional CEOs, specialism CEOs, clients and partners to deliver our strategy and delight our clients, and I can’t wait for her to get started.’
Karen Boswell, incoming Global CEO, Digital Experience, Performance & Consulting, added: ‘I'm thrilled to be joining M+C Saatchi Group at such a pivotal moment. Growth today requires more than great marketing - it demands cultural intelligence, sharp technology and brave creativity. That’s what M+C Saatchi is built for. I’m energised to partner with Zaid and the incredibly talented teams across Media, Consulting, Intelligence and beyond to shape the next wave of transformation with our clients to drive meaningful growth and impact.’
As well as Boswell’s appointment, we are also delighted to announce that Rhonda Hiatt, who has been operating as CEO, M+C Saatchi Consulting on an interim basis, will take up that position permanently, effective immediately. Rhonda has accelerated the agency’s plans to unify its consulting expertise and businesses and has been instrumental in the development of new-to-the-world products, such as the recently launched Cultural Power Index.
