Christine Walker to make a return as media consultant

Walker Media chairman Christine Walker will take a consultancy role after leaving the agency she founded with Phil Georgiadis.

Walker announced her retirement from the agency yesterday and will hand over leadership to chief executive Georgiadis at the end of June, as exclusively revealed on www.marketingweek.co.uk.

She is leaving the company to travel before returning to the UK to “pursue other interests”. It is understood that Walker is planning to become an independent media consultant, allowing her to leave day-to-day agency life behind.

The former chief executive of Zenith Media – now ZenithOptimedia – founded the agency in 1997 with Georgiadis and M&C Saatchi. Dixons was its founding client.

Previously Walker worked in the media unit of Benton & Bowles advertising agency and was a founding member of Ray Morgan & Partners, which was sold to Saatchi & Saatchi in 1988.

Walker Media was the eighth largest UK media agency in 2006, with annual billings of over £250m. It won the £70m media planning and buying account for high street banking giant Barclays following a competitive pitch. It has also been working to establish its digital arm, Walker-i, that launched in 2006. Previously, digital was considered an area of weakness.

Walker will remain a shareholder in M&C Saatchi, which now owns 75% of Walker Media, up from its initial 46%.