Leo Burnett has poached four top planners, brought in a new creative
group head and moved its head of planning, Neil Cassie, up to deputy
chairman, as part of a major relaunch of the agency.
The restructure aims to give Burnetts a more streamlined approach to
clients, allocating specific brand teams of staff from every discipline
to each advertiser.
‘We are hiring the best people both in middle and senior management
across every discipline,’ Cassie said. ‘The advertising industry is
changing and so are we. There is an increasing blurring of
responsibilities across all disciplines, so we have restructured and re-
skilled people.’
The newcomers include Mark Smith, planning group head on Unilever at
Ammirati and Puris/Lintas, who has joined to work on Bradford and
Bingley; Stephen Hessen, who worked on Procter and Gamble at Euro RSCG
Wnek Gosper, and who will now work on Kellogg’s and United Distillers;
Maggie Stanway, formerly with J. Walter Thompson, who will work on
Kellogg’s; and Miranda Forestier-Walker, who has joined from KHBB to
work on planning for Max Factor and Mercedes.
Stanway and Forestier-Walker will both be on the board, which has been
expanded to include four media personnel - Kate Lynch, Richard Beaven,
Marie Oldham and M. T. Doran.
On the creative front, Nick Bell, an award-winning copywriter, will team
up with the art director, Mark Tutssel, and will run United Distillers,
Kraft and McDonald’s. He is replacing Richard Russell, who recently
moved to Bates Dorland.
Bell leaves Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO after eight years. In the last year
he has won awards for his work on Volvo, Ikea and the RSPCA, including a
silver lion at Cannes.
