AMV chief Cilla Snowball linked to chairman’s post

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO London chief executive Cilla Snowball is understood to be in line for the post of chairman at the UK agency.

An informed source claims that AMV managing director Farah Ramzan-Golant will be made chief executive in her place. But another source suggests that Chris Thomas, chief executive of sister agency Proximity, could also be in the running for the role.

There has been plenty of speculation about a possible restructure at the agency for the past six months. Snowball was unable to deny the speculation about her rumoured promotion and that of Ramzan-Golant, saying only: “I’m not saying a word.”

The existing chairman of AMV London, Michael Baulk, who is also chairman of BBDO Europe, declined to return Marketing Week’s calls about the restructure. Both Thomas and Ramzan-Golant were also unavailable for comment.

A board meeting is taking place today (Wednesday) where it is expected that a formal ratification of the restructure will take place. The BBDO.com website was under construction as Marketing Week went to press.

The past year has not been one of the agency’s better ones. In January it resigned the WH Smith account, and is now defending its hold on the &£24m Homebase account. There is also speculation about whether Sainsbury’s, which is handled by AMV, will also review its advertising account. Last week, Walsh Trott Chick Smith was added to the Sainsbury’s Bank roster to work on its car insurance business. However, earlier this year the agency managed to wrest back BT’s broadband assignments and the BT Yahoo! business, said to be worth &£29m, from Fallon.

Separately, Snowball has been appointed as a non-executive director on the board of Macmillan Cancer Relief.