DDB London boss poised to join Lowe’s new agency

DDB London chairman and chief executive Paul Hammersley is set to take the top job at Sir Frank Lowe’s new agency. He could be joined by JWT London managing director Mark Cadman.

As Marketing Week went to press, it was confirmed that Hammersley  (pictured) was considering his future at DDB London, but had yet to reach a decision. DDB Worldwide head of corporate communications Pat Sloan says: “He has not made his decision and he has not resigned.”

Hammersley’s future at Omnicom-owned DDB has been in question since last week, when Sir Frank Lowe announced his plans to return to the advertising industry with a start-up agency. The agency has already won the &£45m Tesco account from his former agency, Lowe London.

Cadman and Hammersley are former colleagues from Lowe’s London agency and Hammersley later became chief executive of Lowe New York for two years. He left the agency in 2003 and was rumoured to be considering launching a start-up agency until he took the DDB job in February 2004.

Cadman joined JWT in February, following the surprise appointment of former Grey chief executive Garry Lace to head Lowe (MW February 10). It was understood that a number of agencies were interested in Cadman, owing to his close association with the Tesco account.

The news that Cadman could be looking to leave JWT less than a year after his appointment comes just weeks after the agency appointed Toby Hoare as its new executive chairman (MW November 24). It is understood that Hoare is keen to build his own team of senior executives, and is unlikely to install Cadman as his London chief executive and second-in-command,

News, page 12

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