Jackson joins O&M to head Ford Euro brief

Paul Jackson, the former Ammirati Puris Lintas executive managing partner who ran the Rover business for more than a decade, has joined Ogilvy & Mather to head the Ford of Europe account.

Jackson replaces Sean Neall, who returns to his native US.

He will be responsible for an estimated &£100m worth of business, including advertising for the Mondeo, the Escort, the Transit and other commercial vehicles and the Ford dealerships business, and will report to Mike Walsh, chief executive of O&M Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Before joining O&M at the end of last week, Jackson worked at Dewe Rogerson and before that was vice- chairman, executive managing partner at APL until his abrupt departure two years ago.

He has been intimately associated with the Rover business for years, working on the account at BSB Dorland then defecting to join Kevin Morley when he snatched the account in 1992. Jackson remained in charge of the Rover advertising when Morley’s agency KMM was bought by APL in 1995.

Daryl Fielding will work with Jackson in her role as head of Ford GB, while Tony Grigg is in charge of the Ford dealers account.

Last summer, after O&M suffered the devastating loss of lead status on the Ford of Europe account to Young & Rubicam, Kelly O’Dea, O&M’s president of worldwide client services left and later joined Bozell in a senior international role. O’Dea has not been replaced within the O&M management structure.