
William Eccleshare
CEO of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings
Education
- MA, History - University of Cambridge
- - William Ellis School
- - Fitzjohns Primary School
Overview
William Eccleshare is the Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.(CCO)
is to step down as global chief executive of Clear Channel after 12 years during which the outdoor media owner has moved from a traditional poster company to a digital-focused business. Eccleshare, who left the agency sector after stints as BBDO, Y&R and JWT to join Clear Channel as international CEO in September 2009, will hand over to Scott Wells, the chief executive of the Americas division, in January 2022. “It’s been a fantastic run,” Eccleshare told Campaign. “Moving from agency to media owner was a big call but a really good call in terms of the experiences I got. It meant I moved from being just an ad man to a business man.” He described outdoor as “the original – and best – advertising medium” and said now was the right time to step down after steering Clear Channel, the world’s second biggest out-of-home media owner after JCDecaux, through the pandemic. Eccleshare, who turns 66 later this year, will stay involved as executive vice-chairman of Clear Channel on a part-time basis and has several non-executive roles, including at Britvic, Centaur Media and the Donmar Warehouse theatre. “I’m looking to build on that portfolio in the future in both business and the arts,” he said, adding: “I won’t be taking another big CEO role, I can promise you that.” Eccleshare’s agency roles included chairman and CEO of BBDO in EMEA, chairman of Y&R in Europe and global strategic planning director of JWT, plus he spent three years at McKinsey. In an interview with Campaign, he also talked about coping with former parent company iHeartMedia’s debt problems before he relaunched Clear Channel on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019 and his optimism about the future for outdoor, despite the tech giants having taken a huge share of the ad market over the past decade.
Career
- Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings - CEO