Wieden & Kennedy's Martin Cole loses cancer battle

By John Tylee, campaignlive.co.uk, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 05:09PM

LONDON - Martin Cole, the Wieden & Kennedy planning director, has died after a battle against cancer.

Martin Cole...passed away in hospital

He passed away last Friday, the day after he married his Swedish partner, Lotte, in hospital.

His death comes just nine months after he joined W&K from the London office of Santo, the WPP-backed start-up agency, where he was a founding partner.

On the agency blog, W&K said: "He was diagnosed with his illness shortly after joining us. But in the few months he was with us he made a major contribution. We will miss his wisdom, his insight, his enthusiasm and his humour."

Cole’s agency career spanned spells at Grey, where he was the planning director on the agency’s Nokia business, and Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Before joining Santo, he was the planning director at WPP. He also produced programmes for Channel 4 and worked as a recording artist with Virgin.

Cole, who continued working until shortly before his death, leaves a son, Casper.

Read Garry Lace's tribute to Martin on the Campbell Lace Beta blog.

Leave your memories of and tributes to Martin below:

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk