Top Ammirati Puris Lintas executive Anna Gorman quits

Ammirati Puris Lintas is to lose Anna Gorman, managing partner and group account director for its BBC and Burger King accounts.

Gorman, who is working out a three-month resignation period, leaves the agency next week.

She says: “I have been with APL for five and a half years, and now is an appropriate time to move on and pursue other options for taking my career forward.” She says she has a “number of options on the table”.

She is married to J Walter Thompson chief executive Stephen Carter and together they have a two-year-old son. Gorman says she will leave to look after the child for a few months, but expects to take up a new post in October.

APL chief executive William Eccleshare says the accounts Gorman has worked on are being re-aligned. The Burger King account is to be handled by Paul McWhinnie. But there is no replacement for her on the management executive, which is equivalent to the management board for APL in London.

In a separate move, APL media director Paul Longhurst has left the agency after failing to reach “a mutual agreement” about his position. He will be replaced by his two deputies, Matthew Pitt and Pru Parkinson, who become joint media directors. APL handles media planning for Rover, Burger King, P&O and Nestlé.

Longhurst’s departure comes after APL lost two key pieces of business. The global account for Compaq, which was worth 6.5m in the UK, went to DDB Needham. And it lost about 2m of business when NatWest centralised its account into TBWA GGT Simons Palmer.