New York, NY – May 11, 2026 – Following a year of tremendous growth with new clients including Inspire Sleep, Land O’Frost, Hertz Car Sales, and Dole, MissionOne Media, the media division of leading independent agency BarkleyOKRP, has tapped key leaders to join its team and set the stage for the next phase of growth.
Michael Piner has joined as the agency’s first EVP, Head of Investments and Partnerships. In this role, he will help steward a collective $1.1 billion in client media spend across all channels, taking a data- and tech-driven approach to optimize for client business goals, not just media efficiency. Piner was most recently Chief Investment Officer at PHD and spent more than a decade prior with IPG in roles including SVP, Partnerships and ultimately EVP, Advanced Advertising for Mediahub Worldwide. Piner is known as one of the media industry’s leading voices on the digital transformation of TV. He was an early pioneer in driving the development of advanced advertising capabilities industrywide, earning him recognition as Ad Age’s Media Planner of the Year for boundary-breaking media strategies using data and technology.
MissionOne Media is also investing in Planning, tapping Kelly McGowan as EVP, Media Planning. In her new role, McGowan will oversee all media planning and product responsibilities leading teams to push the boundaries of media and drive demonstrable results for clients. Prior to M1M, McGowan spent more than 12 years at global media agency Mediahub Worldwide. There, she was known for guiding global brands through reinvention, scaling investment at pivotal growth moments and leading data-driven transformation delivering measurable results. In 2023, she was named an Adweek Media All-Star for her work on Ulta Beauty and Celebrity Cruises, among others.
Piner and McGowan will report to Sean Corcoran, president, MissionOne Media. They lend additional firepower to an established leadership team that includes Reshma Karnik, chief media officer; Demian Brink, chief analytics officer; Lavall Chichester, EVP, SEO and AI Optimization; Pat LaCroix, EVP, Media and Growth; and Laurel Boyd, EVP, Creative Media.
“Kelly and Piner are joining MissionOne Media at exactly the right moment. The industry is at an inflection point where the old rules around attention, audience, and investment are being rewritten. AI is restructuring how media gets planned, signal loss is forcing smarter thinking about measurement, and clients are demanding more accountability for every dollar. Leaders who can think strategically and work holistically across a fractured, fast-moving landscape with clients and media partners are the leaders of a modern agency. We’re building for what media’s becoming,” said Corcoran.
“What excites me about this role is the mandate to build planning into a genuine strategic discipline. The agencies winning right now are the ones where planning drives the conversation, where the thinking starts with a real understanding of human behavior and works outward from there. That’s the approach I’ve always believed in, and I look forward to helping continue MissonOne’s momentum with strategy and client outcomes at the core,” said McGowan.
“The investment landscape has never been more complex or more full of opportunity. What drew me to MissionOne is a genuine commitment to innovation in how we invest; not just chasing what’s new, but building the frameworks and the media partnerships that let us move first and move smart. There’s an enormous amount of client value sitting at the intersection of bold investment strategy and the right media relationships, and that’s exactly where I intend to operate,” said Piner.
McGowan and Piner will be based in the agency’s recently opened New York office.
