MRM taps Diana Ceausu Caverly as global chief strategy officer

MRM has promoted Diana Ceausu Caverly to the position of global chief strategy officer, the agency said on Thursday. 

The appointment fills a role that has been vacant since Ariana Stolarz left MRM in November to join Accenture Interactive in a product innovation role, and completes the agency’s global leadership team under CEO Kate MacNevin. 

“Because of the space MRM is in at the intersection of strategy, commerce and technology, [we wanted] to find a really well-rounded strategist,” she said. “That is such a big part of the MRM go-to-market offering.”

Caverly comes from within the McCann Worldgroup network, where she led the GM account as EVP, global head of strategy and innovation. She is from Romania and began working with McCann out of its offices there in 2007 as a senior strategic planner.

At MRM, she sees an opportunity to apply her experience rethinking strategy on GM brands such as Chevy, where “everything had to be modernized and reinvented” in the past few years, to a wide range of brands across categories. 

“We’re all living through this period of incredibly accelerated reinvention that is both human and technological at its core,” she said. “For me, being able to help brands and businesses completely rethink and grow meaningful relationships with people, and do that in some of the most modern, innovative and effective ways — that’s a dream job.”

Having worked across multiple continents, Caverly is passionate about bringing global talent together in “fresh ways,” she said. She also aims to set a global standard for how MRM defines and delivers on strategy for clients. 

“Strategy makes the difference between something that is relevant or not relevant,” she said. “Being able to look at strategy with the same critical eye is going to be fundamental for us as a community at large.”

A self-described “metaverse enthusiast way before the hype,” Caverly is an early adopter of Web3 and also plans to bring her knowledge and experience in the space to MRM’s strategic toolkit. “It’s a crucial moment to help clients understand what is a meaningful way to move into this space,” she said. 

MacNevin said she was happy to be able to promote Caverly from within the IPG and McCann Worldgroup family, noting “there is a real talent war out there. It’s tough to find the right candidates that check all the boxes and are willing to move,” she explained.

She called Caverly “a transformative leader” and believes she will make impact by defining MRM’s go-to-market around the metaverse and Web3, sharpening the agency’s strategic toolkit and bringing together MRM’s 162 strategists around the globe in new ways.