NEW YORK—Grayling has hired MSLGroup's Peter Harris as US CEO.

Harris, who will be based in New York, will report to Pete Pedersen, who became global CEO of Grayling earlier this year.

Harris most recently served as SVP at MSL, where he led the agency’s corporate and technology practice. Prior to MSLGroup, Harris held leadership roles at Ketchum, Access and Peppercomm.

Harris’ arrival comes after considerable change in Grayling's US operations. Earlier this year, the firm rebranded DutkoGrayling’s five offices to Grayling and unified its various agencies in the country.  The firm also hired Perry Tell as regional head of Grayling Digital and Gina Sorice as senior managing director of its New York corporate practice.

In addition to his US responsibilities, Harris will be part of Grayling’s international board of directors, which also includes Loretta Ahmed (Middle East), Wolfgang Lang (Western Europe) and Jan Simunek (CEE & Russia). 

“Peter is a rare talent and incredibly well-respected within our industry,” said Pedersen. “He’s got big agency experience, but has also built a start-up agency from scratch.  He’s effective in the board room of large multinationals, and equally compelling at the white board with start-ups."