BDH makes triple senior redundancy as Brookes, Hulme and Lear depart
BDH\\TBWA is understood to have made its managing director and joint creative directors redundant.
Managing director Nick Brookes and creative heads Gary Hulme and Chris Lear are all believed to have left the agency with immediate effect.
The Manchester-based agency has undergone numerous changes over the last 18 months, including a change in chief executive when Robert Harwood-Matthews arrived in September last year to replace the departing Neil Griffiths. Griffiths was made redundant, along with client services director Carol Smith, after the agency suffered its biggest account loss to date when Morrisons ended its relationship with the firm.
Harwood-Matthews joined BDH from TBWA\\London, where he had been client services director, handling clients such as Playstation and Nissan. At the time, agency chairman Martin Kemp hailed the appointment as signalling \"an exciting new era for BDH.\"
He added: \"I am confident his dynamism and strategic input will be beneficial to the whole TBWA\\Manchester group and out clients alike.\"
Since then, the agency has won a number of seven-figure accounts including Jessops, the Department for Work and Pensions and haircare brand ghd.
On the personnel front, the agency has seen a number of senior staff made redundant or leave, including planning director Liz Bielinska and Dave Peters, who headed up the firm’s Integrated Marketing Services Division.
Harwood-Matthews was unavailable to discuss the latest round of redundancies as The Drum when to press. However, an industry source revealed that both Hulme and Lear were offered other roles within the business – thought to be senior art director posts - which they turned down.
Brookes was promoted to the role of managing director in April 2006, following a restructure of the board. Previously, he had shared the position with Smith. Earlier this year, he led the pitch team that won the ghd account.