Media agency Initiative, the culture development arm of Interpublic Group, announced this week that Erin Jakubans will be joining as Chief People Officer on 1 February 2022, taking over from Scott Laird who is moving to media investment company GroupM.

Jakubans is presently Head of HR at Baker McKenzie in the United Arab Emirates, a position she has held since 2019. In a musical chairs-like twist, she had joined Baker McKenzie from GroupM's MENA operations, where she was Group Head of People & Talent. Prior to that, she was National Head of People & Development at Omnicom companies in Australia and New Zealand.

She is currently back in Australia for the transition period and will be based in New South Wales for her new role.

Initiative CEO Melissa Fein said of Jakubans' appointment: “I am confident we have found a fantastic leader in Erin, capable of strengthening our impressive talent base, whilst being a fierce champion of diversity, culture and nurturing our high-performance culture.”