AdvertisersAgenciesCreativeFinanceMediaNews

The Gate poaches new creative chief Lucas Peon from WPP’s Wunderman Thomson

Full service agency The Gate London has lured Wunderman Thomson executive creative director Lucas Peon to be its new ECD. Peon was ECD at JWT before WPP merged it with Wunderman. Peon replaces Beri Cheetham who is moving to a new role in the US for The Gate owner MSQ partners.

Peon, a former film director in Argentina was also CCO of WPP’s Possible network. He will form part of The Gate management team with CEO Jamie Elliott and CSO Kit Altin.

Elliott says: “Kit and I are thrilled that Lucas is going to lead the next phase of our transformation journey. He is a world-class, progressive creative leader who understands the possibilities in the modern landscape more than most. He is the perfect partner to take our creative & media proposition to the next level.”

Peon (centre with Altin and Elliott) says: “I’ve been impressed with the clarity of vision from Kit and Jamie, their appetite for breakthrough ideas and the ambition of the agency. The opportunity to concentrate on delivering brave, meaningful, talked-about work with a winning team that is genuinely focused on doing things differently, was hard to resist.”

MSQ CEO Peter Reid says: “I’m delighted to welcome Lucas to the MSQ fold. It’s great to see yet more talent excited to join the group, and his arrival is testament to the way that Jamie, Kit and Beri have grown The Gate over the past two-and-a-half years.”

Peon is quite a catch for The Gate and may indicate the attraction of ambitious, independent operations over big holding company network agencies. The Gate, which offers creative and media, has offices in London, Edinburgh, New York and Hong Kong. Clients include Church & Dwight, Canal & River Trust, The Electoral Commission, Chiltern Railways, Close Brothers, RBS, Douglas & Gordon, Greater London Authority, the Crown Commercial Service, Brewin Dolphin and Capital Group. In 2018 it was named ‘Small agency of the year’ by matchmakers Oystercatchers.

MSQ Partners is a group with 25 international offices spanning advertising, public relations, direct and digital marketing, design, brand strategy and B2B. Its 70 most senior employees are also shareholders.

Back to top button