Leo Burnett has poached Peter Beech, a director of the new-media agency,
CHBi, to head its interactive marketing unit following the departure of
Russell Davies.
Davies left last week to join Wieden and Kennedy in Portland, US, as an
account planner on Microsoft. He had been at the agency for two-and-a-
half years.
Davies was previously in charge of interactive media at Delaney Fletcher
Bozell and its media joint venture with CIA UK Holdings, 20/20 Media.
However, by training Davies was an account planner and is now keen to
combine his knowledge of new media with his planning skills in his new
role.
In contrast to Davies, the 36-year-old Beech’s early career was in
media. He has been at CHBi for only 18 months, having joined the agency
when he completed his MBA in 1995. Before then he was the managing
director of Tritron Communications. He had previously had a stint as a
group account director at CIA Medianetwork.
Claire Durwood, head of new business and marketing at Leo Burnett, said:
‘We were very sorry to lose Russell but he was offered a plum job. For
someone who was as involved in the technology side as he was, working on
Microsoft is perfect. He told us a couple of months ago that he was
leaving which gave us time to find Peter.’
Beech, who joins Burnetts next month, will assume the same
responsibilities as Davies had. These include helping Burnetts’ clients
market themselves in the digital environment, creating personalised
Internet systems for global and international clients and developing
tools in new media.
