Barclays strategy head quits
Barclays brand strategy director Sara Deeks has left the bank just weeks after the arrival of group brand and UK marketing director Jim Hytner.
Hytner decided he wanted to assume Deeks’ duties himself. Deeks left the company immediately the decision was made, and is now looking for a new role outside Barclays.
Hytner was poached from ITV, where he was marketing director, in June. He replaced Barclays group marketing and communications director Simon Gulliford, who had resigned the month before.
Deeks, a long-serving Barclays marketer, was promoted to the bank’s second-most senior marketing job a year ago. She oversaw the appointment of design agency Williams Murray Hamm to overhaul the bank’s brand identity earlier this year. Deeks and Gulliford jointly oversaw the move of Barclaycard’s advertising to Bartle Bogle Hegarty from DDB London, where it been for 13 years. Gulliford presided over a succession of marketing reshuffles over the past couple of years. However, after Matt Barrett moved up to become chairman, new chief executive John Varley has reversed much of Gulliford’s restructuring and ordered a marketing shake-up ahead of Hytner joining (MW June 24).
Varley also axed the role of top marketer at Barclaycard, but rather than handing control to Hytner he decided that managing director for cards and loans Alison Rennison should take over the marketing of the credit card (MW July 22).
