Senior management to go amid redundancies at Kinetic

By Maisie McCabe, mediaweek.co.uk, 12 May 2009, 07:00AM

LONDON - WPP's out-of-home communications agency Kinetic has put a number of staff into consultation, with those at risk of redundancy including international and airports head Jonathan Goldsmid-Whyte, and Richard Blackburn, managing director of Kinetic's regional division.

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Ivan Clark, director of digital and creative solutions, is also set to leave the company after nearly four years, through mutual consent. He plans to explore "other exciting opportunities within advertising".

In February, Goldsmid-Whyte was promoted from chief executive of Kinetic's airport division Aviator to run a 12-strong team combining Kinetic's international and airport divisions with the new job title of business development director, Kinetic.

When the division was set up, Goldsmid-Whyte reported to Kinetic's EMEA chief executive David Payne, who has since taken the role of chief executive of the Americas.

Blackburn is the managing director of Kinetic Zone, the firm's specialist division dedicated to delivering outdoor planning and buying for local and regional advertisers.

It is believed the number of redundancies overall at the agency will be four.

Kinetic is 50%-owned by Martin Sorrell's WPP marketing services network and 50% by Kinetic's senior management team. Kinetic handles outdoor advertising for all the GroupM media agencies, OMD, Starcom MediaVest Group and some smaller agencies.

Its clients include BA, Vodafone, Nokia, Virgin Media and Sony Ericsson. The company declined to comment to Media Week.

WPP is understood to be planning to axe up to 7,200 jobs this year - 6% of its staff in the UK, Europe and the US.

Last week, Mediaweek.co.uk revealed WPP media agency Mindshare is making a round of redundancies across its London-based UK and worldwide operations as part of a cost-cutting drive.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk