• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 14, 2005

Charlie Rutman has resigned as president of Aegis Group's Carat USA unit to become CEO of the North American operations of Havas' MPG unit, marking the third top executive to resign from Aegis in as many months.

Rutman, who was one of the first American executives Aegis hired when it formed Carat North America, follows Joanne Burke, executive vice president-managing director of Carat Insight, out the door. Rutman, ironically, was in the process of recruiting a new research executive to replace Burke as head of Carat's research operations when he asked the Aegis board to let him out of his contract. The Aegis board is also going through some upheaval following last week's ouster of CEO Douglas Flynn, who will be succeeded by Robert Lerwill--a former group finance director at WPP Group, who most recently was CEO of a regional division of Cable & Wireless.

In an internal memo distributed to the Carat staff on Friday, Carat CEO David Verklin said: "We are actively looking for Charlie's successor both inside and outside the organization, and I will assume his responsibilities for managing Carat USA in the meantime."

Rutman, who had been in talks with Havas for weeks about the MPG post, first had to convince Aegis' management to let him out of his contract. That decision came down on Wednesday, and Rutman accepted what he termed "a terrific deal" to join what many see as a troubled organization. MPG has been losing big accounts, and its parent Havas itself is the subject of speculation concerning its largest shareholder, French corporate raider Vincent Bollore.

"I know this is going to be challenging, but opportunities like this don't come around that often," Rutman told MediaDailyNews. Rutman was the leading candidate to fill the post, which was vacated by Jim Rose in November 2004.

Rose was the latest in a succession of CEOs to run MPG over the past six years since it was formed by fusing the media departments of Havas' Arnold group and independent media buying agency SFM Media.

Over the years, the U.S. operation has failed to develop a distinctive identity, in part because of its management succession, as well as the oversight from abroad by Barcelona-based Global CEO Fernando Rodes.

"This business is based on personalities--that's something we haven't had for a while. Charlie is one. At least now we are going to have a face for MPG USA," said an MPG insider.

Rutman, who was a top media executive at DMB&B and Bates before joining Carat in 1998, is a well-known and well-liked figure in the industry.

"Carat has grown to be one of the five largest media services companies in the United States, with a reputation for innovation and exceptional client service. None of this would have been possible without Charlie's drive, excellence, and passion for the business," noted Carat's Verklin in his memo.

Rutman, however, will have a tough job repeating that act at MPG. One of Rutman's first jobs when he joins in April will be to figure out how to downsize MPG's organization after losing hundreds of millions in billings from accounts like Volkswagen and Intel Corp.

Carat, meanwhile, faces management challenges of its own. The agency is renowned for its research and strategic planning capabilities, of which Rutman and Burke were key players.