• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 7, 2005

In a shakeup at the world's largest pure-play media services conglomerate, Douglas Flynn is out as chief executive officer of Aegis Group. He will be replaced in late March by Robert Lerwill, a former group finance director at WPP Group, who most recently was CEO of a regional division of Cable & Wireless.

Aegis, the parent of the Carat and Vizeum media networks, did not give a reason Flynn's departure, by implied he was leaving the "media sector" and joining Rentokil Initial PLC as CEO.

"There will be suitable handover period, which will ensure stability within the business," the company stated.

Flynn, who has been CEO of Aegis since September 1999, was part of the team that built it into one of the major global advertising holding companies, and the only one focused exclusively on media and research.

Lerwill currently is a non-executive director of Aegis and joined the Group's board in 2000.