IBM poaches Sony chief to head UK arm

IBM is understood to have hired Sony’s head of European advertising, Brenda Jones, as the computer giant’s UK director of marketing.

It is thought that Jones’ role will be to bring a unified voice to the company whose products include networked computers, consultancy services, consumer PCs and computer games.

An IBM spokesman says: “We will make an announcement in May.”

IBM’s global media spend was 1.6bn last year. Its UK spend was 22.5m, according to ACNielsen- MEAL.

At Sony, Jones controls a Europe-wide ad spend of about 75m.

Over the past 18 months, IBM has streamlined its operations. While this restructuring has been underway, the position of UK marketing director remained vacant. The last person to fill this job was Mike Mawtus, who retains a European role with the company.