Saatchi picks Euro chief as deputy chairman

Saatchi & Saatchi has promoted European chief Richard Hytner to deputy chairman of the worldwide network.

Hytner, who was the agency’s chairman of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), will report to Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide chief executive Kevin Roberts in his new role.

The agency says Hytner will be “driving Kevin Roberts’ worldwide programme of reinvention and will also take the lead in redefining Saatchi & Saatchi’s global strategy and planning function”.

Jim O’Mahony, who runs the network’s Asian and Latin American divisions, will add EMEA to his responsibilities and take the new title of chief executive EMEA, Asia and LATAM.

Hytner, a former chief executive of Publicis London, joined Saatchi & Saatchi three years ago after he had taken a year’s sabbatical to go on the London Business School’s Sloan Masters MSc programme.

A Cambridge Law graduate, Hytner has been in charge of Publicis London and the Henley Centre and was also chief executive of Ammirati Puris Lintas.

Hytner’s promotion comes a week after Saatchi & Saatchi’s worldwide strategy director Kevin Dundas resigned after seven years with the agency. In a subsequent memo to staff, Roberts said he would announce a new planning and strategy structure by the end of the month.

Dundas joined Saatchi & Saatchi’s London office in 1999 as executive planning director and was appointed chief executive in 2003. He was made worldwide strategy director at the beginning of last year, shortly before former Red Cell chief executive Lee Daley joined the agency as London chairman and chief executive.