Newell & Sorrell chiefs to set up ‘think tank’

Former senior executives at Interbrand Newell & Sorrell are setting up a “think tank” consultancy.

Piers Schmidt is to team up with Russell Lloyd – both former directors of Newell & Sorrell. Schmidt, who was at the centre of the British Airways tail-fin redesign, resigned his position as director of strategy at the end of last year.

Lloyd, said to be the man who engineered Omnicom’s takeover of Interbrand Newell & Sorrell, resigned from the post of financial director at the same time. Both have continued to work for the company on a consultancy basis.

They will be joined by Michael Wolff, non-executive director of Newell & Sorrell and the man who founded the branding consultancy Wolff Olins.

Secrecy surrounds the launch, but Schmidt says: “There is a group of people in the process of setting up a company, but it is not a design agency or a corporate identity specialist. It is something entirely new. We are talking to investors at the moment.”

Wendy Gordon, managing director of Goodthinking, will also be joining them. She was a founder of the Research Business.

The company is expecting to make an announcement in April.