Hotline: Mike Ainsworth has died aged 53

Mike Ainsworth, a former senior executive at J. Walter Thompson, Saatchi & Saatchi, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Leo Burnett, has died aged 53 after a brief illness. At Saatchis, he played a key role in the launch of The Independent newspaper and later ran AMV's BT and Comet accounts. Last year, he helped launch a consultancy with the former AMV communications director Jonathan Obermeister.