Jeppeson takes on Hytner’s retail role at Barclays Bank
Barclays has axed the group brand and UK banking marketing director post previously held by Jim Hytner, splitting his responsibilities and £350m budget between two roles.
The high street bank has promoted Dave Jeppeson to the new role of UK retail marketing director. He will report to UK banking chief operating officer Deanna Oppenheimer, who took on Hytner’s responsibilities following his resignation in August (MW August 16).
In July, Oppenheimer brought Jeppeson to Barclays from credit card giant Capital One to become its direct response marketing director. Head of group customer service Richard French becomes commercial marketing director, responsible for Barclays Commercial Bank, which is rebranding from Barclays Business Banking.
The bank confirms it is also scrapping the group brand role. Instead, marketing directors from across the business including Barclaycard chief marketing officer Libby Chambers, whose role also previously sat below Hytner’s, will sit on a brand reputation committee.
The reshuffle follows a tumultuous time for the high street bank, which was previously considering creating a global group marketing director role reporting to Frits Seegers, chief executive of global retail and commercial banking (MW 23 August).
It is thought that Barclays’ high-profile failure to merge with Dutch giant ABN Amro, losing to an RBS Group-led consortium, has forced management to put plans on hold.
Hytner, who resigned to become commercial director of Top Up TV, the digital pay-TV service, joined the bank from ITV in late 2004, replacing Simon Gulliford. During his tenure he moved media planning and buying from Starcom to Walker Media, although he kept Bartle Bogle Hegarty as advertising agency.
