Garry Lace, the former chief executive of ad agencies Lowe, Grey and TBWA, has returned to the industry after a two-year break to join outdoor media company Admedia.

Lace, who has been appointed managing director of Admedia, has also taken an undisclosed "significant" equity stake in the company.

Admedia operates ad sites in 200 UK shopping centres, all 131 motorway services and more than 1,500 nightclubs, bars, restaurants and health clubs around the country.

"I have kept my head down for a couple of years," said Lace, who left his last ad industry role as chief executive of Lowe London in May 2006, speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk.

"I began to miss running a business but didn't want to go back and run an ad agency, I'd already run three of them," he added.

Lace, hired by Admedia's joint chief executives Philip Vecht and Jonathan Naggar, has been given the goal of doubling the size of the business over the next three years.

He will look at expanding the operation into areas including mobile and experiential marketing as well as examining merger and acquisition opportunities.

Lace said he had spent 95% of his time over the past two years working in the private equity world in the media and marketing services sectors.

"I have spent the last year, in particular, focusing on outdoor [advertising]," he added. "It is the one growing media outside the internet and there is bags of innovation in the sector."

Lace, who is 40, will start his new job on July 1 and joins just weeks after Marc Mendoza, managing partner at Havas-owned media agency Media Planning Group, joined Admedia as a non-executive director.

Jonathan Lewis, the former managing director of Clear Channel Billboards, became chairman of Admedia in early 2008, replacing Stevie Spring, who left to become chief executive of magazine company Future Publishing.

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