Sydney, Australia \u2013 UM Australia has appointed Jessica Lauria as Managing Director of its Sydney office, a leadership change aimed at sharpening client relationships and accelerating growth in an agency market still bruised by budget caution and shifting media spend across Asia-Pacific.<\/p>\n
She brings 25 years of experience spanning brand and marketing leadership roles across Gopuff, Chobani, S\u2019well, and Hint, alongside early agency stints at BBDO, Anomaly, and Berlin Cameron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She will take charge of UM Sydney with a mandate to strengthen client partnerships and push the agency further into outcomes-led planning.<\/p>\n
Lauria most recently served as CMO of OoMee and was previously Head of Brand Marketing at Gopuff, where she oversaw global brand strategy, media, and innovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than following the traditional path, we prioritised finding a leader who not only deeply understands the real impact agency output has on marketers but brings a fresh perspective to UM,\u201d said Stevie Douglas-Neal, CEO of UM Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith extensive client-side experience and international kudos, Jess brings first-hand insight into the pressures marketers are navigating in 2026, and the role UM can play as true business partners,\u201d Douglas-Neal said.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cOur ambition is to be the media agency that best understands our clients and brings the full spectrum of thinking to drive business impact; Jess is a powerful reflection of that and we\u2019re excited about the energy and leadership she will bring to UM Sydney.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauria said, \u201cUM\u2019s ambition is to be the most impactful agency in its client\u2019s ecosystems. That starts with deeply understanding our client\u2019s business needs, pressures and routes to growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always believed media is one of the most powerful levers a business has, not just for reach, but for brand-building, culture-shaping and creating impact at scale. Right now, we\u2019re in one of the most dynamic moments the industry has ever seen,\u201d Lauria said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to join UM Sydney to help shape the strategy and bring my experience to the table to ensure creativity and media are truly connected to drive meaningful growth for our clients,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Douglas-Neal said the appointment is part of a wider effort to reset leadership capability across the agency. Lauria will assume the role on 18 May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney, Australia \u2013 UM Australia has appointed Jessica Lauria as Managing Director of its Sydney office, a leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8054,23,8053,8055,8052,247,8051],"class_list":["post-6649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-appointment","tag-australia","tag-jessica-lauria","tag-leadership","tag-stevie-douglas-neal","tag-sydney","tag-um-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}