M&C Saatchi incoming board chair Zillah Byng-Thorne has purchased 143,536 of the agency’s ordinary shares, it disclosed in a recent regulatory filing. 

Byng-Thorne is set to take up her new role on June 15, succeeding Garth Davis, who is retiring. At the end of March Byng-Thorne stepped down as CEO of UK media company Future Plc., a magazine, newsletter and online publishing company founded in 1985, and now with over 200 brands.  

In a filing earlier this year, the agency also confirmed that Bruce Marson, after a year-long stint as interim Chief Financial Officer has been appointed permanent CFO. Mason was previously a senior financial executive at Dentsu. 

Separately Chris Sweetland has been nominated as a non-executive director to the board, expected to be effective 15 June. A former finance executive at WPP, Sweetland will serve as a representative of AdvancedAdvT Limited and Vin Murria who remain large shareholders in the agency after Murria’s failed attempt to acquire and merge M&C Saatchi with Advanced last year.