Euro RSCG confirms Mark Cadman departure

by Kate Nettleton, Campaign 08-Dec-08, 11:45

LONDON - Mark Cadman, the chief executive of Euro RSCG, is leaving the agency without a job to go to, after what agency sources are deeming "a difference of opinion over the future direction of the agency".

The agency has no plans to replace Cadman. Russ Lidstone, the managing partner and chief strategy officer, will take on the acting chief executive role.

Cadman's responsibilities will be split between Lidstone and Mark Hunter, the executive creative director.

David Jones, Euro RSCG's global chief executive, said: "I'd like to thank Mark Cadman for the role he has played – we are in a much stronger position today than when he joined us.

"We're very ambitious for where our London agency can get to and it's now time for us to set out on the next phase of that journey.

"In Hunter and Lidstone we have two of the best talents in London and I'm very excited about what they can achieve."

Cadman's departure follows just days after Euro RSCG lost the £26 million 3 account – which he secured alongside Lidstone shortly after the pair joined from JWT in 2006 – into the digital agency Glue.

The loss of the 3 account was the latest in a number of significant losses for the agency, including the News International business, which moved into WCRS in November, and the bmi and bmi baby accounts, which were snared by M&C Saatchi and Cheethambell JWT respectively.

At the time Cadman joined Euro RSCG, he had been linked with a senior position at Sir Frank Lowe's start-up, The Red Brick Road. However, he decided to leave his role as JWT managing director to replace Ben Langdon, the former Euro chief executive, who had departed the previous year.

Kate Robertson, the Euro RSCG UK group chairman, said: "We're going to move up a couple of gears now. We've plans to action and Lidstone and Hunter are the right team at the right time."

Cadman was not available for comment.

Comments

Garry Lace - 09/12/2008

Is it me or have some sections of the advertising world lost their collective minds? As I now understand it,hot on the heels of Lowe telling the world that they don't need a UK CEO,Euro RSCG now do the same.Maybe I missed the chapter on alternative methods of management but I've always worked on the assumption that companies need a leader.That person for whom people will work harder and care more because they are able to construct a vision for the business based on experience and instinct and articulate it in a powerful and motivating way.That person who proves to be a magnet for talent and clients alike and for whom nothing is impossible.Someone in the agency world today should stand up and expose the trend towards leaderless agencies as the nonsense that it is.Any CEO out there willing to write the article?