• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, April 16, 2012

GroupM, the WPP media management arm, has named Mike Tunnicliffe to the new post of chief growth officer for North America, effective immediately.

Tunnicliffe will oversee a team at GroupM that will support the new business and organic growth efforts of the Group’s media shops, including Mindshare, MediaCom, Maxus and MEC.

Serving essentially as advisors to the agencies, Tunnicliffe and his team will help the shops make sure they are utilizing all the available tools within the GroupM and WPP organizations as they pursue business development opportunities, said GroupM North American CEO Rob Norman.

“In order to ensure that our agencies’ new business operations are running at full speed, it’s essential that they maximize all the resources available to them,” Norman stated.

Tunnicliffe joined GroupM in 2010 as leader of specialist services, a sort of special projects advisory role. Last year, when Maxus was competing for (and eventually won) the NBC Universal media assignment, Tunnicliffe advised Maxus on its pitch strategy. His counsel on the NBCU pitch, and his role in advising on several other pitches, was the impetus that led to the creation of the new post.

Prior to joining GroupM, Tunnicliffe was a branding, entertainment and media consultant for several years. Clients included The Filament Entertainment Group, Sanctuary Artist Management, Ricall, the music licensing database firm, Aegis Media and program producer 19 Management.

Earlier, he was North American chief strategy officer and then global client and network development director at Initiative, the Interpublic Group media agency.

Tunnicliffe will remain based in New York and will report to Norman.