Leo Burnett creative chief Burley to leave to join CHI&Partners

Leo Burnett executive creative director Jonathan Burley is set to leave the agency to join CHI & Partners.

Burely will replace Ewan Paterson, the executive creative director of CHI & Partners, who announced his departure days ago to take control of the creative department at DDB Chicago.

Burley, who joined Burnett from HHCL in 2006 as a creative director with responsibility for the agency’s McDonald’s business, was promoted to executive creative director a year later to take overall control of Leo Burnett Group’s 40-strong creative department, and has since run the agency alongside group managing director Paul Lawson.

It is understood that Burley will leave the agency in the next three months to join the rival CHI&Partners.

Burely created the recent McDonald’s ads that attempt to change the perceptions about the quality of ingredients that the fast food giant uses in its products. The recent work shows families working together in a field, planting flowers that grow into images of a cow, a chicken and a sack of potatoes.

Burley’s career in advertising started at WCRS in 1992 and he left after four years to join HHCL+Partners and worked on Egg, Pot Noodle and Tango.

During his time at CHI, Paterson has created award-winning campaigns including the “Brains” spot for Drench, and the “Marathon” campaign for Argos. He joined the agency in 2005 from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where he had worked on the iconic British Airways account.

This story first appeared on pitch.marketingweek.co.uk