Ex-Walkers chief lands HBOS top job

Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) has handed its top marketing post to head of retail brand marketing James Boulton, following the promotion of Philip Hanson, who has been put in charge of mortgages and secured lending. Boulton will be head of marketing and customer relationship management across the HBOS group.

Boulton is a former marketing director of PepsiCo-owned Walkers Crisps. He oversaw the crisp brand’s Gary Lineker advertising campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers.BDDO. Before joining Walkers, he worked at Unilever.

He left Walkers over two years ago to join the Halifax as head of marketing communications, prior to the merger with the Bank of Scotland last year.

The bulk of HBOS’s advertising business is handled by Delaney Lund Knox Warren, which created the high-profile Halifax ads featuring the company’s own employees.

A spokeswoman for the company says no replacement has been found for Boulton, but the company will seek to recruit someone soon.

Hanson, who has held HBOS’s top marketing post since the merger, replaces Paul Duffin, who is leaving the bank for personal reasons.

Boulton was unavailable for comment as Marketing Week went to press.

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