Havas Media Network has appointed Jackie Lyons (pictured) to fill its newly created position of chief planning officer for North America. Based in New York, Lyons will report directly to North America CEO Greg James.

Under her new role, Lyons will be responsible for helping clients with data-driven media planning. She has also been tasked with developing client-centric approaches that use Converged, Havas’ global operating system, which was announced at Cannes last June.

Lyons most recently held the position of chief planning officer at Havas Media Network U.K. She joined the agency as planning director in 2020 and prior to Havas, she spent more than five years at Carat London, first as client director for Diageo Europe and then as planning partner. She was also a media director at PHD.

During her time at Havas U.K., Lyons founded a specialized planning team called the Connected Planning Hub. This team enabled the company to deploy different planning skillsets to solve various client challenges, according to Havas.

The agency makes this appointment after naming Louise Simkin as its Canadian president. Simkin filled the void left by the departure of Noah Vardon earlier this year, when he was promoted to chief client officer for North America.