This article was originally published by Adweek.
Sara Porritt has been tapped to be Omnicom Media Group’s new diversity and inclusion lead for the U.S. She is a veteran of the network who brings both diversity and inclusion leadership and client-side experience to the role. This development comes as the media agency network seeks to expand the role of diversity and inclusion across people and products operations.
Sara Porritt will succeed Justin Reyes, following his departure for a senior diversity and inclusion role with the MLB. In the position, Porritt will be responsible for driving Omnicom’s efforts to promote equal representation, development, support and retention of employees across all underrepresented groups—as well as putting diversity and inclusion efforts at the core of both Omnicom Media Group’s culture and offering.
“To achieve lasting and meaningful change, D&I must be a crucial and consistent piece of the corporate infrastructure, encompassing both our people and our products,” Porritt said in a statement. “These two sides of the equation are intricately linked, and creating a strong bridge between them will not only give us a competitive edge, but also allow us to translate such innovative thinking to how we service our clients and evolve the industry.”
Porritt previously spent four years at OMG agency OMD, where she acted as both U.S. diversity and inclusion lead and senior director of integrated media planning for both the Clorox and PepsiCo accounts. During her tenure in these roles, she developed a strategy around diversity and inclusion designed to foster a culture empowering and supporting employees of all backgrounds while infusing diversity and inclusion principles across agency operations. She also combined diverse perspectives to create culturally relevant campaigns for her clients and worked to incorporate such perspectives across all clients as diversity and inclusion lead.
During her tenure at OMD, Porritt supported the agency’s participation in OMG’s Asian, Black and Latinx Leadership Networks, led a national hub called Culture Club connecting all OMD regional offices for conversations around diversity and inclusion-driven issues, events and celebrations and launched a corporate wellness program. In addition to her work for OMD, she also promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in the ad industry on the board of the 4As Foundation and acts as a mentor for She Runs It in support of career development for women in advertising.
“At a time when advancing diversity, equity and inclusion has never been more imperative, it’s never been more important to have the right person leading this effort,” OMG CEO Daryl Simm said in a statement. “As someone with the combined experience of building and leading diverse account teams, as well as assuring a culture of opportunity, support for the people on those teams, Sara is the right person to lead OMG’s DEI efforts, expanding beyond a cultural imperative to a mandate that encompasses products, service offerings and thought leadership.”
The appointment follows similar leadership changes for the broader Omnicom network. Last December, Omnicom hired Emily Graham as chief equity and impact officer following the departure of longtime Omnicom chief diversity officer Tiffany R. Warren for Sony Music Group.
