Redundancies at OPR as it battles COVID-19 impact
WPP AUNZ public relations agency, OPR, has made a ‘small number’ of roles redundant due to the impact of COVID-19 on the business, Mumbrella can reveal.
Mumbrella understands that Fiona Forbes, managing partner of corporate and government practice, is one of the retrenched staff members.
Forbes’ now lists herself on LinkedIn as a self-employed consultant, as of July 2020.
Mumbrella has contacted Forbes for comment.
OPR confirmed the redundancies to Mumbrella in a statement.
“Due to the impact of COVID-19, OPR has made a small number of roles redundant. The wellbeing of all employees, preserving future jobs and managing the health of the business remains a priority during this challenging time,” it said.
“The company will not be making further comment.”
The news of the redundancies comes two days after it was announced WPP AUNZ’s CEO of PR, government relations, experiential and design, Kieran Moore, would be leaving the business in mid-July.
Moore was the CEO of OPR – then known as Ogilvy PR – between 2011 and 2017, and then spent two years as its chair.
Earlier this year, OPR promoted its joint managing director with Howorth, Graham White, to the newly created role of chief operating officer. OPR chief growth officer, Jacquie Potter, took on the additional role of Howorth MD in his place.
At the end of last year, OPR hired managing partner Melissa Cullen and promoted Dan Young to the newly created role of chief digital officer.
Bridget Jung became the agency’s first chief creative officer last year.
Looks like a lot of those promotions over the last few months were to create new highly paid senior positions. Good agencies die when they get top heavy and the juniors get crushed…
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