A&L lures top Lloyds TSB marketer

New Alliance & Leicester managing director Peter McNamara has poached a senior marketer from former employer Lloyds TSB to head A&L’s personal banking operation.

Graham Pilkington, marketing director for personal banking at Lloyds TSB, will take up the same position at A&L. It is understood he will join the bank next month.

The move is believed to have reduced the role of A&L group marketing director Tim Pile, who oversaw Pilkington when both worked at TSB.

Pile has been head of marketing since 1996. He resigned from Lloyds TSB after failing to secure the top marketing role when the two banks merged.

The appointment comes in the same week that A&L briefed a number of advertising agencies about a new ad account. It is understood the brief is not for the bank’s new Internet service, but a strategic project.

A spokesman for A&L incumbent BMP, which has held the main £15m account since 1985, claims the agency has not been approached about the brief.

McNamara joined A&L in June from Lloyds TSB, where he was managing director of personal banking.

His appointment followed an eight-month search for a new chief executive to replace Peter White, who lost his job following the failed merger with Bank of Ireland.

The bank has a two-headed management team: McNamara, who is responsible for day-to-day operations, and executive chairman John Windeler.

An A&L spokesman refused to comment on the appointment, while both Pile and Pilkington were unavailable as Marketing Week went to press.