UM's Maria Grivas becomes CEO of Reprise Australia

UM Australia's chief data and technology officer Maria Grivas has been promoted to CEO of sister agency Reprise.

She replaces Matt Sallis, who has resigned for family reasons related to travel restrictions from his base in Canada. Sallis has been leading the Australia market remotely from Canada since March 2020.

Mediabrands Australia CEO Mark Coad said: "Matt has done a great job under very difficult circumstances and we wish him the very best for the future."

Grivas' promotion follows nine-and-a-half years with the Mediabrands network in Australia. She first joined in 2011 as national digital director at UM, became head of digital for Mediabrands, before moving back to UM as chief digital officer. She has been chief data and technology officer at the media agency for more than three years, in addition to being a mentor across the Mediabrands group on digital development.

Coad said: "Reprise plays a vital role in supporting our teams and clients with world-class communications solutions and as Maria has proven in her UM role, she is the ideal future leader for the business."

UM will search for a replacement for the data and technology leadership role "in due course", Coad said.

Reprise Australia has more than 150 staff across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 

In taking the leadership role at Reprise, Grivas will also join the Mediabrands Australia executive leadership team and play a key role in shaping the future direction of the group.

Grivas said: "Having already worked closely with Reprise for some time, I am very excited about the CEO role. The business has a large team of very talented people doing great work and my ambition is to help elevate their successes as the industry evolves at pace."