Preeya Vyas joins Wunderman Thompson as first global chief experience officer

Preeya Vyas has joined Wunderman Thompson as global chief experience officer, a new and critical role for the agency as it seeks to develop a cohesive experience offering across its network.

Vyas will lead the agency network’s customer experience practice globally, working across strategy, creative, data and technology teams to design and deliver experiences for clients.

She will partner with account leads to bring more experience-focused work to Wunderman Thompson’s top 30 clients and other accounts across the globe.

“I’m really excited to work with the talent at Wunderman Thompson to articulate the vision of our CX practice that will absolutely sit at the intersection of experience and creativity,” she said.

Wunderman Thompson didn’t previously have a global chief experience officer. In North America, experience was led by Sherine Kazim, who left nearly three years ago and is now head of design at product design and engineering studio Siberia.

Vyas brings a mix of agency and customer experience knowledge to her role. Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson she spent nearly three years as chief strategy and innovation officer at independent agency DeVito Verde, and she led the experience practice at Saatchi & Saatchi for nearly six years before that. She also worked at Mcgarrybowen.

She is a boomerang at Wunderman Thompson, having been a VP of strategic planning at Wunderman and a strategic planner at J. Walter Thompson earlier in her career, prior to their merger in 2018.

Her priority is to create a cohesive narrative and offering around customer experience for the 20,000 person agency, which currently offers such work in pockets in its 90 markets across the globe.

“Unifying that perspective is an absolute priority for me,” she said.

She defines experience work as existing on a spectrum, from bringing a brand campaign to life in new ways to creating a digital platform for clients that sits at the heart of their operations.

Vyas made the move to back Wunderman Thompson for the opportunity to work across what she describes as “world-class” experience capabilities.

“We’re going to be heading to a challenged economic climate. Wunderman Thompson has the depth and breadth of capabilities to create real, growth-driving solutions,” she said. “ I’m really excited to be a part of that, not only in its conceptualization, but also execution.”