Is it the Great Resignation? Quite a few adland leaders seem to be falling out of love with the old trade.
Latest one to depart to focus on “personal projects” is Ete Davies (below), CEO of Engine Creative who’s stepping down after what seems a pretty successful two and a half years.
Davies, who joined joined Engine in from AnalogFolk, says: “Over the last two years, I have effectively integrated the existing creative disciplines, successfully launched new practices and service offerings, diversified our client portfolio, built a high-performing, representative and inclusive leadership team, driven greater diversity and inclusivity across the business and have led Engine Creative to some of its best years for creative output. I’m particularly proud of the ‘Long live the Prince’ work for the Kiyan Prince Foundation.”
Engine has been in the shop window for a couple of years now as owner America’s Lake Capital seeks to offload its UK business. Originally the plan was to combine Engine’s creativity with a broad-based production business. But agencies, which operate in their own client-obsessed way, are tricky to blend with businesses that actually make things.
This can’t have made managing through the pandemic any easier as financial pressures mount when a sale is the priority. Engine has also lost senior managers Jim Moffatt to Apple and Louise Hayward to Now.
