Ogilvy boosts creative presence on board

Ogilvy Group UK has appointed Greg Burke, the creative partner responsible for Ford, and OgilvyOne’s executive creative director Colin Nimick to its board.

The move increases the proportion of board members from the group’s creative department to more than one third.

Ogilvy Group UK chairman and chief executive Gary Leih says: “A year ago we had no creative representatives on the group board. For an organisation which is all about conceiving and executing big ideas for our clients’ brands this was clearly out of kilter. The increased representation from our creative community will help us to keep our focus where it truly belongs – on the output.”

Group planning director John Shaw, who joined from Ogilvy Asia in August, has also been appointed to the board. Prior to joining Ogilvy, Shaw worked at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland and London, and had spells at Nielsen, JWT and Y&R.

Burke, who is responsible for Ford of Britain and Ford of Europe, joined the company just over a year ago from Ogilvy South Africa and has overseen recent campaigns including the relaunch of the Ford Transit and the launch of the S-MAX.

Nimick was promoted to executive creative director of OgilvyOne last month. He has been with Ogilvy for 16 years in a variety of positions both above- and below-the-line.