Publicis loses three to Bollor笢acked start up

Publicis has been hit by the departure of three senior executives, who have left to form a start-up agency backed by Vincent Bollor?chairman of rival group Havas.

Christophe Lambert, chief executive of Publicis Conseil France, and Frederic Raillard and Farid Mikart, founders of Publicis-owned hotshop Marcel, have left to form Fred Farid Lambert. Bollor?ill hold a 30% share of the new venture, which launches in January.

Marcel, which was launched last year, was appointed to the 200m pan-European Orange business alongside Fallon London earlier this year. It is not clear how the departures will affect the account. Havas-owned Euro RSCG agency offices in London and Paris are responsible for Orange’s business-to-business activities worldwide.

The defection of Lambert, Raillard and Mikart follows last week’s announcement by Publicis that Oliver Fleurot had joined as executive chairman. Publicis Worldwide chief operating officer Rick Bendel has also left to become supermarket Asda’s group marketing director, as reported on marketingweek.co.uk last week.

Bollor?s also the largest shareholder in marketing servcies group Aegis, which owns the Carat and Vizeum media businesses.