Sharb Farjami Joins Wavemaker as US Chief Operating Officer

Wavemaker US is pleased to announce that Sharb Farjami has been appointed as the agency’s chief operating officer, North America, effective mid-September. Farjami will sit on Wavemaker’s executive committee (EXCO) and report to Louisa Wong, Wavemaker’s Americas region CEO.

Sharb brings a wealth of expertise to his new role, having served in several chief executive capacities over the past 11 years at NewsCorp and Mindshare (a part of GroupM). Sharb Farjami joins Wavemaker from NewsCorp’s social media intelligence ​​​agency, Storyful. With extensive media industry experience – agency and publisher side – and a strong digital media background, Sharb is an experienced c-suite leader with a proven track record and a deep understanding of how to drive brand and business growth. Prior to his time at NewsCorp and Mindshare, Sharb held leadership positions publisher-side at Foxtel, Ignite Media Brands and Viacom.

To accelerate growth and build upon the agency’s transformation agenda that landed Wavemaker as Adweek 2021 U.S. Media Agency of the Year, Sharb will oversee all aspects of the company’s North American operations in his new role, including the company’s burgeoning pipeline of new business.

“We’ve had an incredibly fast-paced and exciting growth journey at Wavemaker over the past 18 months,” said Louisa Wong, CEO, Americas Region, Wavemaker. “We have ambitious plans for the agency, and I look forward to closely partnering with Sharb as we continue to challenge our people to positively provoke, push boundaries, challenge norms and drive transformation, all in service of growing our client’s businesses.”

“I’m inspired by Louisa’s vision for the agency of the future,” said Sharb Farjami. “It’s a very interesting time in media right now and Wavemaker is well positioned to continue to win with strong talent, deep resources, pioneering OS, innovative tech and the award-winning culture needed to succeed. I’m also pleased to rejoin a GroupM company at this exciting time as GroupM is leading the industry with its Responsible Investment framework commitments like the Media Inclusion Initiative to support and grow diverse and Black-owned media companies and creators.”

Farjami’s appointment is part of a continued series of initiatives designed to accelerate the agency’s transformation agenda. In the past 18 months, the agency appointed three high profile hires –including Delphine Fabre-Hernoux (chief data & analytics officer), Alex Norman (chief growth officer) and Vinny Rinaldi (executive director, head of investment & activation) – and has built strong momentum, onboarding more than a dozen new clients – including Pernod Ricard USA, Coinbase, Perfetti Van Melle, Bungie and EcoLab – and hiring hundreds of talented people to serve its growing portfolio.