Madison & Wall Hire of WARC’s James McDonald

James McDonald joins as Managing Director, Global Markets from WARC, while Michael Leszega, CFA, joins as Senior Analyst from MAGNA.

The expansion builds on Madison & Wall’s existing coverage of the U.S. and Canadian advertising markets, the global agency industry, and companies that rely on marketing investments. It also strengthens the firm’s position as a consultancy led by financial analysts that combines industry data with research and advisory services.

The new hires will help expand coverage to 50 markets and support the addition of ongoing research and analysis. As part of this expansion, the firm is releasing a new global advertising forecast covering major markets across North America, Europe, APAC, and Latin America.

McDonald joins from WARC, where he spent more than 10 years developing advertising data products and market intelligence services. His work focused on advertising spending, media consumption, media costs, and ROI across more than 100 global markets, working with advertisers, agencies, media companies, and industry organizations.

At Madison & Wall, he will lead the development of a broader global research platform, including new datasets, market analysis, visualization tools, and client-focused products aimed at making the firm's research more accessible and actionable.

His work will focus on areas such as the creator economy, advertiser spending across different product categories and industries, and tools that make it easier for clients to access and use data within their existing workflows. After spending more than a decade at WARC, McDonald joined Madison & Wall to help build and expand its global data and research platform.

McDonald began his career at Informa, where he advised clients such as Sony, Paramount, and Warner Bros. He later joined WARC in 2013 and played a key role in expanding its advertising data business into a global product used by major brands, agencies, media companies, governments, and central banks.

He also holds qualifications in machine learning, data engineering, and DevOps. Most recently, he led the development and launch of WARC’s global Media product, which debuted in March.

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Leszega joins from MAGNA, where he worked with Stillman for 11 years. During that time, he helped strengthen the firm's U.S. market intelligence through advertising market analysis, forecasting, research publications, and presentations. His work focused on analyzing and modeling the U.S. advertising industry, providing insights that supported clients and industry stakeholders.

At MAGNA, Stillman built one of the advertising industry's leading sources of global digital advertising data. He also managed forecasting for client billings of more than $10 billion annually and led a consulting practice serving publishers, ad tech companies, and brands.

At Madison & Wall, Stillman continues to lead the firm's U.S. and global advertising forecasts. McDonald will focus on expanding global market coverage, strengthening research and analysis, and developing new data products and tools for clients.

“Over the past three years we've been building out world-class capabilities to analyze and advise on the global advertising economy,” said Brian Wieser, CFA, founder and CEO of Madison & Wall. “With James and Michael joining us we will have, by far, more collective expertise forecasting the advertising economy than any other firm on earth.”

“WARC has been like family to me, and I never expected to leave,” McDonald said. “But I believe deeply in what Brian, Luke and the team are building at Madison & Wall. The advertising economy is becoming more complex, more global and more dependent on high-quality data. There is a real need for independent analysis, rigorous datasets and practical insights that help companies make better decisions in a fast-changing market,” he added.

“As James said, the advertising economy is becoming increasingly complex, with interesting new channels emerging and consequential trends shaping this trillion dollar global market. There’s a need for deep, insightful analysis,” Leszega said. “I’m thrilled to join the team at Madison & Wall and have the opportunity to leverage my experience to help build out its research offering. I’m so excited to reunite with Luke and finally get the chance to work with Brian.”

About Madison & Wall

Founded in 2023, by Brian Wieser, CFA, Madison & Wall is a data, research and strategy consultancy serving the media, advertising and technology industries. The firm provides proprietary research, market forecasts, analysis and consulting services to senior leaders across advertising, media, technology, marketing services and investment sectors.

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