Grey London Rocked By Departure Of Its Top Management

Grey London was buffeted today with the resignations of its top leadership, including Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Nils Leonard, CEO Lucy Jameson and Managing Director Natalie Graeme. David Patton, who runs the agency’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, confirmed the development. While he wasn’t specific about why, it’s believed the trio is forming their own agency. 

The departures come less than a week after the ‘Brexit’ decision by UK voters, which some in the industry believe will rock the British ad scene in unfavorable ways, perhaps even dethroning the UK as the ad capital of Europe.  Probably the last thing Grey London needs now is further uncertainty created by the defection of its leadership. 

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But Patton, in a statement, insisted that was not an issue. "Grey London is in a very strong place," he stated. "It has never had a deeper, more diverse bench of talent with strong creative, strategic planning and account leadership in place to fuel our momentum and break new ground, with culturally ambitious ideas and experiences across platforms." 

Leo Rayman, chief strategy officer at the London office, has been promoted to CEO, while Vicki Maguire and Dominic Goldman will co-lead the creative department. 

The resignations are just the latest round of high-level departures to occur at the WPP global agency network. In January Grey’s Worldwide CCO Tor Myhren left for Apple. Earlier London CEO Chris Hirst departed for Havas and just this month Patrick Scissons, CCO for Canada, departed for KBS.

 

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