Bates continues senior shake-up

The fall-out of senior management in Bates UK’s below-the-line agencies – 141 Blue Skies and Bates Communications – continues this week as the agency reorganises into an integrated shop.

John Lee, chief executive of Bates’ sales promotion arm 141 Blue Skies, has been made redundant and left the company.

141 executive creative director John O’Sullivan has also been made redundant but will continue to work at the agency for a few weeks. The rest of the 141 board remains.

Abigail Mardon, board level group account director of Bates’s direct marketing arm Bates Communications, is to leave. She refuses to comment on her next move.

Mardon heads the £8m Woolworths home shopping account, which Bates Communications won in January.

Jamie Gordon, Bates Communications account director on Safeway and South African Airways, will leave this Friday to go freelance. The departures further deplete the management of Bates Communications. Chairman Marcus Evans and planning director Jeremy Hall left immediately after Bates UK chairman Graham Hinton installed Blue Skies boss Graham Green on the main board as vice-chairman to preside over below-the-line operations.

The reinvention of Bates UK as an integrated communications agency is not complete and more exits are expected.