Pat Fallon fires Paul Silburn from US office

by James Hamilton, Campaign 27-Jan-06

Paul Silburn has been fired as the executive creative director of Fallon's Minneapolis office and is set to return to the UK. His co-creative director at Fallon, Mark Taylor, will also leave the company.

The news comes just 11 months after Fallon poached Silburn from
TBWA\London.

The Fallon Worldwide chairman, Pat Fallon, appointed him to replace
David Lubars, who left to join BBDO.

In a terse e-mail to the whole company, followed by a press statement,

Pat Fallon said: "Paul is a brilliant creative talent and a great guy,
but I am not satisfied with our progress. I needed to make a change and
that change called for decisiveness."

Silburn said: "Professionally, I'm disappointed Pat has pulled the plug
after only 11 months. Personally, I feel really happy to be going
home.

I feel like Terry Waite. Pat said he needed change. I agree that Fallon
needs change. Ironically, trying to implement change is kind of what got
me fired."

The twin firings come on the back of a series of losses for the
Minneapolis agency, with BMW, Dyson and Lee Jeans all moving to other
agencies.

Fallon was also forced to close its New York office in July 2005 after
the resignations of its president, Anne Bologna, and its executive
creative director, Ari Merkin. It lost the Virgin Mobile account to
Mother New York in the process.