Mike Smallwood is stepping down as chief executive of Western
International Media in Europe, to take charge of developing the brand in
Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
Smallwood will remain the chief executive of the London operation for
the time being.
After months of searching, Western has not yet found a managing director
for its London office, but is understood to have approached a number of
top-flight media operators about the post.
Anders Liljeblad, the managing director of Message Plus, a Lowe
subsidiary in Sweden, will take over Smallwood’s European role. He will
continue with his responsibilities at Message Plus.
At the same time, Western has entered the French market through a
partnership with the Lowe & Partners-owned agency, Alice. The operation
will be headed by Stephane Bodier, previously the media director of
Alice. He will report to Liljeblad.
Smallwood said: ’Europe is going exceptionally well and we are way ahead
of schedule. My day-to-day responsibilities in London aren’t exactly
massive, so I am able to look at how far we can take the Lowe/Western
partnership globally. With all these changing job titles, it is
important to keep an eye on what we are all really doing - we are all
still very hands-on.’
France is the third European market in which the Lowe media operation
has rebranded as Western, after the UK and the Netherlands. A launch in
Germany is said to be imminent.
There are still 14 months to go before the stated deadline of the end of
1998, by which time the operation should be functioning globally.
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