Orion Names Tom Telesco Worldwide President of Orion Trading
October 1, 2012, New York, NY – ORION Holdings, a unit of IPG Mediabrands, the global media holding company of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), announced today that Tom Telesco, has been named Worldwide President of ORION Trading, its media barter division. Over the past 16 years, ORION Trading has grown from one office in the U.S. to 16 offices in 12 countries across five continents. Telesco previously held the title of President, North America. In his new role, he will continue to report to Brian McMahon, President and CEO of ORION Holdings.
McMahon stated, “As clients continue to accept the business advantages associated with barter as a portion of their overall media plan, the opportunity for exponential growth globally has never been greater. Tom has led our North American team to enormous success with the addition of more than two dozen U.S. clients in the past 19 months. I’m excited to hand over the reins so he can focus on that same kind of growth globally, and I can concentrate on building the other companies within ORION Holdings including ORION Printing.”
In addition to promoting Telesco, the company also announced that Laura Ryan, Executive Vice President, Director of Client and Media services has been named President of ORION Trading, U.S. She will report in to Tom Telesco.
Telesco added, “I’m excited for the opportunity to enhance and grow the ORION Trading business around the world and I look forward to the challenge of raising the awareness of barter as a strategic business tool for more and more clients. Importantly, I thank Brian for his trust in me – and I will continue to follow his tradition of honesty, accountability and client-centricity around the world.”
Telesco came to ORION from sister IPG agency Universal McCann (UM), where he was most recently an Executive Vice President, Managing Director running the Verizon business. A three-time Effie Award winner with an 18-year run of success at UM, Tom is known for being a collaborative, passionate client advocate who cares deeply about his client’s business. In addition to Verizon, some of Tom’s other former clients include McDonald’s, L’Oreal, Unilever, Newell Rubbermaid and Motorola.
Ryan oversees both ORION’s U.S. Client Services team and the full media suite that ORION Trading provides to its clients, including National, Local, OOH and Digital. Laura joined ORION after spending several years in sales and rising to Corporate Sales Director at Bonnier. She also spent time in integrated marketing sales at Rodale and Time, Inc. Prior to that, she was employed at UM for six years. She brought a unique mix of both sales and media management skills to ORION.
About ORION Holdings
As the first global agency-owned barter organization, ORION Holdings enables some of the largest companies and brands in the world to part-fund media expenditures with their assets – generating cash flow savings for our clients and eliminating potential losses on asset dispositions. ORION Holdings – inclusive of ORION Trading, ORION Printing and ORION Capital – has established a reputation for leading barter practices, extensive media capabilities, partnerships, integrity and a people centric approach – to the individual, the family, and the community.
About IPG Mediabrands
We were founded by Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) in 2007 to manage all of its global media-related assets. Today that means we manage and invest $35 billion in global media on the behalf of our clients, employ over 6,700 diverse and daring marketing communication specialists worldwide and operate our company businesses in more than 127 countries.
