• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 16, 2009

Aegis Group Wednesday announced a shake-up of its board, naming three new, non-executive directors and a new group CFO.

The newly appointed non-executive directors are John Brady, Simon Laffin and Martin Read. They replace those who retired in May. All three directors are effective Aug. 1, and Aegis said Simon Laffin would also become chairman of Aegis' Audit Committee, when Brendan O'Neill also retires from the board as a non-executive director on Oct. 1.

Aegis, the parent of Carat, Isobar, Posterscope, Vizeum, and research organization Synovate, also named Nick Priday group CFO, effective Sept. 1, when current CFO Alicja Lesniak retires. Priday currently is director of financial reporting, and has held a variety of finance roles at Aegis since joining in 2003.

"These appointments complete the major part of the reorganization of the Aegis Board," John Napier, chairman and interim CEO of Aegis Group said in the statement."

The new board members all seem to have strong finance and management backgrounds. Laffin is a non-executive director of Quintain Estates & Development and Mitchells & Butlers, an advisor to CVC Capital Partners and chairman of Hozelock Group.

Brady serves on the boards of Green King and Invest Northern Ireland as a non-executive director, and was previously a non-executive director of Hanson.

Read was recently named a non-executive director of Invensys, and is a senior advisor to HCL Technologies and a member of the International Advisory Board of the CBI.

It's unclear what the new team suggests for Aegis' strategic plans, but the company still is seen as a potential takeover candidates by one or more of the other major agency holding companies, particularly Havas, whose chairman Vincent Bollore, also is the largest shareholder in Aegis.