M&C Saatchi boss quits

Darryn Melrose has quit as chief executive of M&C Saatchi.

His successors will be head of strategy Tony Burt and executive creative director Dave King, who will share the role.

“Mr Melrose resigned from the agency to pursue opportunities outside of the advertising agency,” an M&C Saatchi statement issued today says.

The move means three top advertising industry bosses have resigned in as many weeks, with two agencies also sharing chief executive responsibilities.

Mr Melrose says he has worked on the agency side of advertising for 10 years and, having reached certain goals, it was time to step down.

However, he has been in his current role for less than three years after being poached from AIM Proximity, where he was CEO.

Mr Melrose also told NBR ONLINE that when the three of them joined M&C Saatchi a few years ago, the agency was “having some challenging times”.

His highlights had been new business wins including Orcon, Localist, APN Online and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

“While it is time for me to focus on new goals, I’m sure Dave, Tony and the team will do a great job with the agency into the future,” he says.

Mr King paid tribute to Mr Melrose, telling NBR ONLINE: “He’s been a fantastic buddy for the past five years. He’s been much more than just a colleague.” 

As Mr Melrose had been talking to the company about moving on his departure was not a surprise.

“He’s alluded to a couple of things” but it would be up to Mr Melrose to reveal them.

Mr King says the departure means that while he and Mr Burt would be joint chief executive officers, they would retain their existing roles, which would also reflect their responsibilities.

The arrangement reflects that of Y&R, where the chief executive role is shared between Josh Moore and James Hurman, following the departure of Jon Ramage.

As managing director, Mr Hurman will focus on strategy and executive creative director Mr Moore will focus more on creative.

“We still have overall bosses based in Sydney and London. As Darryn reported to Sydney, so do we. We will both report to Sydney and stick to our knitting,” Mr King says.

He could not explain the apparent trend towards joint CEOs. “Ours is a response to Darryn’s departure. It also gives us both an opportunity to both step up.” 

He parised M&C Saatchi’s Wellington office, which employs seven staff. “We have a fantastic management team."

Mr King is a former ECD from Proximity and has been at M&C Saatchi since 2010.

Mr Burt joined from Aim Proximity several years ago, where he was national planning director.

He has worked on online content for 17 years and was a founder of a UK company which pioneered the sale of digital downloaded music.

The advertising industry also recently saw the resignation of Droga 5 New Zealand co-founder and managing partner Andrew “Rocky” Stone at the end of July.

Creative director Mike O’Sullivan assumed charge of the agency.