Ogilvy boss Tom Moult departs after less than two years
Tom Moult is leaving Ogilvy after less than two years as executive chairman, the company has announced.
He joined Ogilvy & Mather Australia in a surprise move from Euro RSCG in November 2010.
His departure comes a month after Ogilvy’s global boss Miles Young hinted that change was afoot in the Australian operation.
Young said: “We have a very clear vision for reinventing Ogilvy Australia, with digital at the heart. We’re trying to digitise the agency across the board – which is not a common way of doing things in Australia.”
The announcement from Ogilvy:
Sydney: August 3, 2012: Ogilvy & Mather today announced the strengthening of its senior ranks in Sydney and Melbourne to meet growing client demand and capitalise on the agency’s expanding client digital portfolio. The raft of promotions and new roles are effective August 3, 2012.
As part of the changes, Tom Moult will step down as Executive Chairman. Andrew Baxter, Ogilvy’s Australian Chief Executive Officer, will assume Mr Moult’s responsibilities and continue his national leadership of the group across Australia.
“Tom came to Ogilvy to help reinvigorate the agency and prepare it for the next phase of its growth plan.” Mike Connaghan, CEO of STW said. “Now that Andrew Baxter is firmly established in Sydney – in the role of the national CEO, Tom has decided that his mission is largely complete. I’d like to thank Tom for his leadership over the past eighteen months and we look forward to accelerating the execution of Ogilvy Australia’s strategy.” Ogilvy & Mather is majority owned by STW Group in Australia.
“We have made good progress in the past twelve months.” Andrew Baxter said. “We now have without doubt the best strategic planners and best digital teams in Australia and this is showing through in the work we are doing for our clients and on the new business front.
“We have won the Vodafone and Beaurepaires business, and we have a good new business pipelne. We have done some highly successful work for the launch of Australia’s newest bank, the Bank of Melbourne, and more recently for the Qantas Group’s new social travel business, Hooroo.com. These successes have come off the back of Ogilvy’s efforts to attract the smartest strategists in the market, such as Mark Sareff as National Head of Strategy, Gavin MacMillan as newly created Head of Brand Strategy for Ogilvy Melbourne and Gerry Cyron as Head of Brand Strategy at Ogilvy Sydney.
Commenting on the agency’s plans, Baxter said. “We will continue to invest in our core strengths of strategic thinking and creating great ideas that deliver outstanding results for our clients, with the recent successful and highly recognized campaigns for Coca-Cola “Share a Coke” and AAMI’s “Rhonda” testament to that investment.”
“Our future lies in our ability to create and execute powerful ideas that solve our clients’ problems and generate demand – through multiple channels to consumers wherever they may be. To achieve that, we need the best planners and creative people. We also need to accelerate the integration of DTDigital’s expanded digital capability with Ogilvy’s other proven specialist businesses, to build an agency that provides channel-neutral solutions in an increasingly digital world.”
He said the latest leadership changes represent the next stage in the overall evolution and consolidation of Ogilvy’s businesses in Sydney and Melbourne – a plan designed to more effectively provide marketers with an agency offering more closely aligned to their future needs in a highly digital marketplace.
The changes include:
Michael McEwan is promoted to General Manager of BADJAR Ogilvy Advertising Melbourne.
Nick Muncaster is promoted to General Manager of OgilvyOne Melbourne.
Muncaster’s promotion will allow Brian Vella, who previously led OgilvyOne Melbourne, to focus solely on managing DTDigital’s ever-expanding operations across Australia and into Asia.
Andrew Egan is promoted to General Manager of Ogilvy Australia’s Growth Companies, leading the strategic blueprint and operational development of fast growing companies such as Ogilvy Action, Ogilvy Red, Fabric and Etcom. Egan will continue his leadership of Ogilvy’s MYER group.
Ogilvy also intends to reinvigorate the successful partnership between Andrew Baxter and STW Chief Digital Officer and DTDigital Chairman, David Trewern, who together partnered to transform Ogilvy into the leading agency group in Melbourne today. Trewern will continue in his dual roles as STW Chief Digital Officer and DTDigital Chairman, and will work closely with Baxter in the months ahead to accelerate the digital integration plan in Sydney.
In the past six months, the agency has made substantial investments in building a team of worldclass digital experts in Sydney. Phil Whitehouse was appointed as DTDigital Sydney’s General Manager and he has already hired a number of high-calibre digital professionals such as Robert Prescott as UX Director, Jason Massarotto as Design Director, and Technology Director Ben Townsend.
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Good to see Ogilvy recognising talent and promoting from within. That Michael McEwan is as smart as he is handsome.
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Nice one Billy- and you Mr McEwan!
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Nothing more revealing here than the usual press release spin.
Looking forward to reading Tom’s memoirs, or another of his insightful blogs on adland’s introspective view of the business world.
Cheers, Tom, enjoy a Yarra Yerring tonight.
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Tom is a top guy…
mad to let him go
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I had October. Damn.
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Aren’t they right in the middle of the Westpac pitch?
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I met Tom for breakfast just after he took the mission on. i asked him if he was mad! he’s done a bloody good job of turning a very complex and cumbersome ship around… best of luck to him.
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Bookie – you should have factored in the 3 months gardening leave.
I spy a rocky patch for Ogilvy.
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Soon after I joined Singos, Gavin Larkin said to me “The day you start at Singos, they fire a bullet. Eventually that bullet catches up with you”. I dodged the bullet for over four years. I assume Tom was smart enough to step out the door and close it before the bullet even got close.
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