• by Fern Siegel , Yesterday

Global brand and design consultancy Landor, part of WPP, has promoted James Withey to a new role: global executive vice president, strategy.

Withey, an agency vet, reports to Jane Geraghty, Global CEO of WPP Brand & Design and Landor, and Amal Atallah, European President, WPP Brand & Design.

The post is designed to provide clients greater expertise and connect specialist capabilities across brand, design, experience and performance. Withey will also help brands build equity with people and AI.

Geraghty called Withey “a trusted, forward-thinking strategic advisor to our clients. His unusually diverse background gives him the breadth to see where the industry is heading and the opportunities it creates. At a moment of such significant change, he's exactly the right person to lead our global strategy.”

First joining Landor in 2001, he spend 10 years at the agency, ending as head of strategy, consumer brands. He returned in 2021, handing strategy for A&O Shearman and LeShuttle. 

In between, he held senior roles at FutureBrand and Siegel+Gale, as well as running consultancies spanning private equity-backed and founder-led businesses.

Withey added: “Brand strategy is becoming more important than ever. As AI makes it easier to create, replicate and optimize, the challenge for brands is to have a genuinely differentiated idea at their core. The opportunity now is to bring greater specialist depth to the different strategic challenges our clients face, while making sure those capabilities work together.”

Landor is part of WPP’s brand and design collective, which also includes Design Bridge and Partners, Coley Porter Bell, CBA and specialist design companies amp (sonic branding), bdg (workplace & architectural experts), Deep Local (creative technologists) and ManvsMachine (3D motion design).