Mark Ashley-Wilson quits The Furnace for UM
Former Three Drunk Monkeys head of digital Mark Ashley-Wilson has quit struggling ad agency The Furnace after just a year to move to media agency Universal McCann.
Last year The Furnace recently moved into the same offices as sister agency Euro RSCG with both agencies reporting in to the same CEO.
Ashley-Wilson’s career has seen some rapid jumps in recent years. In May 2008 he left his head of interactive role at Rivet for Three Drunk Monkeys. A year later he moved on to The Furnace.
His latest move will see him become national digital at UM.
Ashley-Wilson said: “Joining such an experienced, yet young and curious team is fantastic. I’m coming in to help them continue and grow digital thinking for all their clients, whatever that digital medium may be.”
He joins the agency next week and will report in to new CEO Mat Baxter who starts at the end of the year.
Previous UM national digital director Ben Millar has moved to NineMSN.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Has M-AW actually logged a day of work at The Furnace this year? Hardly a case of quitting. More a case of a new job after an extended period of unemployment.
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Thanks, Checkthefacts. His own profile still lists him as head of digital at The Furnace: http://twitter.com/issybella . He’s also still listed on The Furnace’s staff page http://www.thefurnace.com.au/blog/staff-profiles. But if they haven’t got a head of digital perhaps nobody knows how to remove it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
They don’t even know how to update their own website with content.
Check: http://www.thefurnace.com.au/b.....nd-online/
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He didn’t show up for work at the furnace after an ‘extended break’ and hasn’t been there for over 6 months.
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he took a break to look after his kids fulltime. Relax. He hasn’t posted anything on twitter since January.
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Welcome M-AW.
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MAW is tops.
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wow – tough crowd…
wonder what mark did to incur the wrath of the mumbrella faithful ?
Why so much interest in his personal circumstances ?
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MAW is the best- I’ve worked with him, a great teacher who is always there when you need a question answered or career advice!
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who exactly are these trolls, pull your heads in.
Love the MAW, as do lots of other clients, agencies, people
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Oh Tim, you and your deliberately provocative descriptions – no wonder the UVs are going up! The Furnace is actually doing fine thanks and winning lots of digital and integrated work from clients like P&G (although it would be nice if they didn’t have a no PR rule!)
And everyone should leave Mark alone – he took a break from the industry earlier this year to be able to devote some more time to his kids, so who out there in hard-working agency land could begrudge him that?! I’m sure he’ll do a great job at Universal.
Cheers
Tony Singleton
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MAW rocks so fuck off
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Thanks friends
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Thanks for all of your hard work at the Furnace Mark, good luck in the future.
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