Publicis Media recruits Veronica Appleton as SVP of DE&I

Publicis Media has appointed Veronica Appleton, Ph.D., as its new SVP of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), the company shared exclusively with Campaign US.

Appleton joined on May 22 and has since focused on auditing the company’s recruitment process, improving how it measures retention, evaluating its employee engagement strategies and encouraging corporate social responsibility.

She will oversee six DE&I leaders across the company while reporting to Brian Berg, chief talent officer at Publicis Media.

Over the next six months, she aims to connect with employees on what, and who, they want to see in leadership roles. She also plans to mirror or exceed the racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population at Publicis Media during her tenure.

“We measure our success every quarter, so we expect, at least by Q1 of the next year, that we should see some of those changes happening,” Appleton said. “Especially by Q2 of 2024, we’ll be able to see some clear implications of the work that we put into this.”

She is assuming a position last held by Brian Vaught, who served as EVP of diversity, equity and belonging between June 2021 and February 2023, a role he was promoted to after serving as SVP of diversity and inclusion beginning in July 2016.

Vaught didn’t reply to a request for comment by publication time.

Appleton previously served as VP of talent management, inclusion and workplace belonging at The Marketing Arm between December 2020 and May 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to that, she provided comms support at insurance company Gallagher and served as assistant director of diversity and people operations before that. At the same time, she has held positions as the head learning facilitator of the Women's Leadership Executive Education Program for Yale University and as an adjunct professor of corporate and intercultural communications at DePaul University.

Publicis Media agencies Spark Foundry, Zenith and Starcom all declined to report diversity statistics for publication in their Campaign US 2023 Agency Performance Reviews.