VMLY&R Sydney suffers more departures, including regional CFO Rachel Naughton and regional head of retail Danny Lattouf
A further 11 employees have departed WPP AUNZ’s VMLY&R, including regional CFO Rachel Naughton, regional head of retail Danny Lattouf, and managing partner Miles Scott. All 11 employees were based in the Sydney office.
A statement from WPP AUNZ said it was on a ‘talent upgrading’ mission: “Agency movements are part of the ebb and flow of the business. VMLY&R won’t be commenting on these departures, given many of them are old news, having taken place over a period of many months for many reasons. At least one was a freelancer.”
It continued: “VMLY&R is far more focused on the future. Under new regional CEO Jon Bird, the agency has embarked on a measured restructure and a ‘talent upgrading’ strategy. This has resulted in a raft of promotions to recognise and foster talent from within; transfers being identified from VMLY&R in the U.S., with at least one executive set to start in January; and key hires being made, which began with new regional HR director Lucy Wilson. More senior appointments will be announced shortly.”
Regional CFO Rachel Naughton, regional head of retail Danny Lattouf and managing partner Miles Scott have departed VMLY&R
To thank some very good, senior people who spent a large chunk of their career working their butt off for this agency….not.
Is it really necessary to demean those who lost lost their jobs by claiming to be on a ‘talent upgrading strategy’? Is it not enough to say that the agency needs a new set of talents to meet new objectives, or similar.
Poor show, Jon Bird.
These people didn’t lose their jobs. They quit in a fit of loyalty to Aden, who himself quit. They all need to move on. Bad wording from the agency PR team, but these people aren’t victims.
Have to say that the comment from VMLY&R about ‘talent upgrading’ is pretty laughable with regards to Danny Lattouf. In their current climate, I’d say finding such a loyal, capable and level headed MD will be a stretch. His commitment to the creative product, and willingness to both learn from, and lead jointly with, the ECD’s, as opposed to the back stabbery and politics of many agency leadership teams, truly sets him apart. I look forward to seeing what happens next for the multi million dollar deal delivering, multi award winning, Mr Lattouf.
Some exceptional, industry best talent, have given the agency many many years of service and all WPP has to say is that they’re “upgrading talent”.
What a joke!
“Agency movements are part of the ebb and flow of the business. VMLY&R won’t be commenting on these departures, given many of them are old news, having taken place over a period of many months for many reasons. At least one was a freelancer.”
Wow, the disrespect. Shows exactly why so many people have left.
These departures leave VMLY&R Sydney with basically no capability in digital, which was the very thing that made the agency great in the first place. It certainly wasn’t the Y&R floor making money…
I’d definitely expect further departures.
I wonder how the clients feel about the team they bought into all leaving the agency? Can imagine there’s some difficult discussions for old mate Bird!
Why do they keep trying to pitch me shelf wobblers???
you wish we were old news.
they forgot to ‘talent upgrade’ the person responsible for media statements
sorry, but I gave this place 2 years before full demise post the new CEO’s arrival, but it seems like it’ll happen much faster than that…
You guys screwed up
I want to speak with the manager
Disgusting.
Danny Lattouf is renowned for being one of the best MDs in town, and will no doubt be moving onto bigger and better things. I hope these exceptional talents, and great humans in general, got the send off they deserved – and that it was sufficiently more classy and heartfelt than this article was!
Talent upgrade, what a joke. All these people resigned. They are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel and can’t afford new staff so have promoted a bunch of unqualified staff into senior positions. Anyone worth anything will stay the hell away. Especially after this disgraceful piece of spin.
Promoting unqualified people like Aden did before he was pushed out?
The mess above comes down to poor management leading into the merger and consolidating roles/weeding out people who don’t deserve to be in positions of power. Including some of the above.
Some will be missed – the majority will not.
Love how they try to flip resignations resulting in a max exodus of the entire management team to appear like redundancies and a need for a “talent upgrade”. Nice try…the truth is the truth.
The person making those quotes should reflect on this feedback. At the very very least.
Bingo.
It’s business as usual here.
Looks like the old vml crew have jumped on the comment section. Grow up children.
I think the problem is “business as usual” seems to be a revolving door of senior staff.
Of all the senior staff to leave, the correct ones did.
It’s time for the all the WPP agencies to just fall under the WPP brand. No brand, no expectations, just awful. If you’re foolish enough to work there at least you’ll know what you’re getting into.
This current world where WPP effectively pretends that they have a world of brands with points of difference, culture and value is pointless, they don’t even market themselves that way and they certainly don’t treat any staff or clients with the respect that comes with a culture of accountability. Time to just be who you are WPP.
They’re spinning so hard even their best people are flying off.
Current staff should see this as an example of what terrible management is now in place. Those people who apparently needed ‘upgrading ‘ put years of dedication into the agency and are responsible for its success along with many people who are still there.
Current staff: Take a look into the future, this is how they treat the people who help make them and worked hard – by insulting them.
Disgusting behaviour.
Current staff should see this as an example of what terrible management is now in place. Those people who apparently needed ‘upgrading ‘ put years of dedication into the agency and are responsible for its success along with many people who are still there.
Current staff:
Take a look into the future, this is how they treat the people who work hard – by insulting them.
Disgusting behaviour.
Brands need to be careful who becomes their agency partners for fear of future public backlash. WPP AUNZ is well on its way to become the Halliburton, Cambridge Analytica, AusPost, and Toll Group of communication holding companies. When you treat your people so poorly and with such contempt, who would want to be associated with you?
Bullies & bad sports.
Magical PR spin at it’s finest. Just under 20 resignations in just under three months. Do the maths..
Very interesting article but from what I have heard where this company needs to be heading is in this direction for now. As in remove everyone that allegedly got a ride from the ex ceo and start again. The alleged stories I have heard are shocking. Glad to see this company moving in a direction for the better even though some may look at it as a negative. Love all the alleged ex employees in the comment section too adding extra spice to the article lol majority of commenters imh seem bitter their beloved Aden got pushed out allegedly and they are now held responsible for actually producing work.
if you think…
the people who left weren’t very hardworking and talented and didn’t proudly ‘produce actual work’ for years
or
that working for aden is an easy ride for anyone
you have heard wrong
(and there are also good talents who stayed)
You sound like someone who has been there for 5 minutes.
Any takers for the WPP Corp Comms job that will surely be opening up soon? I’m going to guess they’ll have some trouble filling that role.
The ex VML people in this comments thread need to move on. They all chose to leave. They’re not victims. Frankly, they’re starting to look like psycho exes who can’t let go.
Rachel Naughton is the consummate professional. The CFO you want!
Has been with the agency for over 21 years through several mergers, acquisitions and changes.
Again… “talent upgrade” my ass!
Do you know for a fact the comments on this thread come from “psycho exes” you used to work with?
Do you have their names? because if you know fo0r a fact that it’s “them”, then why not put a stop to the damage they are doing to your beloved VMLY&R with their snipey comments?
Or have you also drunk the WPP Kool-aid and are now deflecting the truth or showing any respect/empathy in true WPP style?
> Do a merger to get a more progressive agency.
> Force all progressive people out.
> Retain traditional agency.
????
> Profit
You really have to question the logic here. Some great talent in Lattouff, Miles Scott, Ruth Hatch and Jackson Alsop. Not sure why you’d ever let them leave.
However, to insinuate that they wanted their key people to leave for seems slightly far fetched.
Looks more like they were forced to launch a mass talent replacement.
The implication of ‘talent upgrade’ seems very bitter and unnecessary. Hope they can just get on with it avoid flippant statements. I’m sure they do fine.
Aden is not the only WPP agency leader to leave and see other great talent follow. Does the WPP PR machine think anyone is stupid enough to swallow this BS? Insulting.
Don’t worry Jens will sort it all out with his deep market knowledge, public company background and years of agency experience and fluent English… oh wait…
How insulting – ‘talent upgrading’. If they want talent upgrading they should get rid of [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]. Such an insult not only to the employees who have left but to every employee still working there.
You might want to fact check your ‘source’. Aden was made redundant – he didn’t resign.
Utter BS.
Danny has been a shining light at that place for years. Dynamic, personable, smart AF. They should’ve been building their agency around him, not watching him depart.
He single-handedly transformed a toxic culture into a profitable and award-winning retail business, a place where people were happy to come into the office and took great pride in their work. No doubt they fought to keep him, anyone in their right mind would.
Danny and Rachel are class acts. WPPAUNZY&RVML will be a lesser place without them both. I’m sure they are quite relieved not to be there.
Truly some of the best people I’ve worked with. I’m sure they will both move on to better things in a less toxic environment.
That is an absolute disgraceful phrase ‘talent upgrading’.
How about taking some god damn pride and respect in the talent that already exists in the agency, WPP aunz and the Australian market in general.
You cannot complain about the industry being mean to you or agendas by the trade press when you make mean-spirited statements like that.
Call it what you want, talent upgrade, whatever. If you are hemorrhaging 11 staff (and good ones) plus the countless other staff in the past 12 months, the writing is on the wall. You don’t lose that many staff if everything is peachy.