WPP has very recently promoted media boss Adam Gerhart to global chief client officer and appointed Veriça Djurdjevic (ex-Channel 4 and PHD) as UK Media’s chief client officer, while Tyler Turnbull is the new head of WPP Creative. Over at MSQ, Stagwell EMEA CEO Peter Reid has joined as group CEO.
Much is made of these senior hires, always positioned as being an important step for clients, helping to deliver growth, and being part of a grand plan á la WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s “Elevate 28”. But word from inside the agencies is that clients are getting mightily fed up with losing the people they trust and work with every day as redundancies deplete teams and drain morale.
When agencies are facing so much change, it makes sense to make big changes around structure and staffing – and sometimes there are clear gaps to fill. But it’s less logical to lose sight of the employees who are the glue of agency life.
