Wunderman Thompson UK springs surprise with former Partners founder Steve Aldridge as creative boss

Former Wunderman execs have landed the plum roles in the two merged WPP agencies in the UK with Pip Hulbert as CEO and Richard Dunn as CSO and chairman. JWT CEO James Whitehead is moving to a “global client role.”

In the one surprise Partners Andrews Aldridge founder Steve Aldridge (below), latterly at Engine Group, has been named new CCO. Wunderman CCO Ian Haworth is moving to a global client role.

New CEO Hulbert says: “Growth is at the heart of everything we do and Wunderman Thompson defines that. I’m excited to lead an agency that fuses creativity, data and technology together to rethink business, culture and brand experiences.”

There’s no doubt that Wunderman in the UK has been a success, aided by the efforts of Mel Edwards, now global CEO, and Mark Read who made the former direct marketing agency a WPP driver in his time as global CEO. Read is now running the whole WPP shebang so he was bound to stick with his former allies.

Quite how much of the old JWT, once the most famous ad agency in the world and for a decade or two the biggest in London, remains in the new Wunderman Thompson remains to be seen.