Chime appoints Lord Davies of Abersoch as chairman

By Nick Batten, campaignlive.co.uk, Monday, 19 November 2012 09:56AM

Chime Communications, the group behind ad agency VCCP and sports marketing agency Fast Track, has appointed Lord Davies of Abersoch as its new chairman.

Lord Davies of Abersoch: apopointed chairman of Chime Communications

Lord Davies will start his new role on 6 December, taking over from acting chairman Roger Hughes.

He currently holds a senior independent directorship at Guinness and Smirnoff drinks group Diageo, and is also vice-chairman and partner at Corsair Capital, and non-executive chairman of PineBridge Investments.

His former roles include minister for trade and investment in the previous Labour government and chairman and chief executive of Asia-focused bank and Liverpool FC shirt sponsor Standard Chartered.

The previous chairman of Chime was its founder Lord Bell, who stepped down earlier this year when he negotiated to buy a significant portion of Chime's public relations business through a new private company.

Lord Davies said: "Chime is a very interesting company with strong growth potential. I am looking forward to helping them achieve their goals. There are many international opportunities and we intend to seize them."

Hughes said: "Lord Davies has an outstanding reputation as a leading businessman and a clear passion for people based businesses. He also has a wealth of international experience which will help Chime as it develops its business in the UK and overseas."

In its trading update today (19 November), Chime claimed that its sports marketing division had seen "very good growth" in 2012, and its advertising and marketing services division had continued to focus on "improving margin whilst maintaining income growth."

Follow @nickbatten2

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk