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He will lead efforts to align culture and ways of working post-merger, embedding collaboration, dismantling silos, and driving a client-first approach.
Robert Stone (pictured above) has been appointed Chief People Officer of Omnicom Oceania, effective March 2026.
He joins from Clemenger BBDO, where he previously held the Chief Talent Officer role.
Speaking to HRO, Stone shares that his immediate priority is leading the people integration required to make the new operating model successful, referencing Omnicom Group’s acquisition of Interpublic Group and the subsequent consolidation of agency brands in the region.
"A significant focus of the role has already been the mergers across the group – bringing together multiple businesses, cultures, and ways of working, so from a People perspective, the priority is ensuring that integration translates into a unified, high-performing organisation," he says.
This involves understanding current talent gaps across the business, building internal growth and capability programmes to develop our existing people, and identifying external talent – potentially from outside the traditional agency sector, who can bring new skills and perspectives to support the transformation.
As he elaborates, his core focus will be on aligning culture, behaviours, and ways of working across the business – i.e., embedding collaboration, breaking down legacy silos, and helping people transition into a more connected, client-first model.
"Ensuring clarity for our people during this period of significant change is critical, so they understand expectations, how they succeed, and where they fit in the future organisation.
"Success in the first year is about creating cohesion, building confidence through change, and enabling our people to fully step into the new model so it can deliver on its promise."
To that effect, he notes that the people strategy needs to evolve to support a fundamentally different way of working – one that prioritises collaboration over silos and client outcomes over individual P&L performance. The goal, he affirms, is to create a workforce that can operate upstream – thinking more strategically and engaging at a higher level with clients.
Talking about the biggest challenge he anticipates in this role, he acknowledges that it will be cultural transformation. "While structural and system changes can happen relatively quickly, shifting mindsets and behaviours across a large, diverse workforce takes time," he tells us.
Additionally, there is the challenge of ensuring people can "stretch" into the new model moving beyond traditional roles into more integrated, strategic ways of working. To tackle this, he is looking to build a culture that is highly collaborative, commercially minded, and future focused. Within HR, this would mean acting as strategic partners to the business rather than a support function, while remaining deeply curious and open to new ways of working.
For one, it would involve HR acting as strategic partners to the business rather than a support function, Stone shares. HR would also need to be deeply curious and open to new ways of working.
Importantly, the team would need to champion evidence-based decision-making and be confident to say "I know", not "I think", he notes, adding the need to drive accountability while enabling people to grow and adapt.
"More broadly, the culture should support people to be proactive contributors to transformation – those who "make things happen" rather than observe from the sidelines.
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