Wavemaker Appoints Jessica Maley as Chief People Officer, North America

Wavemaker announces today that it has hired Jessica Maley as chief people officer, North America, effective May 2022. Maley will report to Louisa Wong, CEO Americas, and serve as part of the agency’s US executive committee.

With more than a decade of experience in human resources and talent management, Jessica Maley joins Wavemaker to lead the agency’s people and culture team following a strong year of continued business success and innovation that culminated in the agency’s MediaPost 2021 Media Agency of the Year designation.

In her role, she will lead and execute Wavemaker’s people and culture initiatives to attract, retain and engage employees in the US. She will leverage her deep experience across learning and development, DEI, and talent acquisition to help ensure a diverse and representative employee population. She will focus on partnerships and initiatives to hire and reskill talent in a tight labor market.

Maley joins from Wavemaker Asia Pacific where she held the role of chief people officer, APAC. In this regional role, Maley was responsible for leading talent strategy across 17 APAC markets where she worked closely with regional leaders and key stakeholders within each market to drive innovative initiatives across attraction, development, and engagement. Maley also actively collaborated with GroupM’s people team to deliver the best possible employee experience for employees in the region. In tandem with her role at Wavemaker, Maley also held the role of VP of Talent for GroupM’s Xaxis in APAC.

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Prior to her regional post at Wavemaker APAC, Maley spent 8 years leading talent acquisition for GroupM, most recently as Head of Talent Acquisition for Asia Pacific. In this capacity, she led the implementation of GroupM’s hiring strategy and solution implementation across the APAC region. Earlier in her career and in her first role in the group, Jessica worked as the first talent acquisition lead for GroupM in Australia, where she developed and implemented innovative hiring strategies across all GroupM agencies in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Jessica to Wavemaker North America,” said Louisa Wong, CEO, Americas region, Wavemaker. “Not only does Jessica come from within our global Wavemaker family, but she has a proven track record creating an exceptional people-first culture that values the contributions of every member of the team.”

“Our people are our greatest resource and I’m excited for the opportunity to attract, retain, support and engage the best talent in the North American market,” said Maley. “Given market conditions, it’s more important than ever to invest in our people to help them to grow, learn and thrive and I’m excited to test, learn and apply strategies that have been very successful in other markets.”

Maley’s career journey within the GroupM network in Australia, Asia Pacific, and now North America, is a testament to GroupM talent mobility providing the agency’s people – across all levels – with new opportunities and variety around the network and the globe.