This month saw some more changes atop WPP’s biggest in-house production studio, Grey’s Townhouse.
Bennett McCarroll stepped down as president of the company approximately two weeks ago, an agency spokesperson confirmed today. He got the full VIP sendoff.
Townhouse officially launched last November, but it had been in the works for some time under the banner of WPP’s global production network Hogarth. The news broke via a memo from Grey’s Jim Heekin and Hogarth CEO Richard Glasson naming the latter organization’s former head of client services Kristen Martini as its first CEO.
McCarroll reported directly to her, but he’d held top positions on Grey’s production team for some time, serving as EVP and director of film production from 2007 to 2016.
Townhouse still operates on the DL for the most part, though it does now have a website and a LinkedIn page. The memo touched on planned expansions to the UK, EMEA and APAC regions in order to serve key client P&G. You may also recall that “Townhouse 23” was the organization named in the 2016 Screen Actors Guild complaint alleging the use of non-union talent. (Townhouse’s listed address is 230 Park Avenue South.)
We haven’t heard anything on that front in the year-plus since SAG-AFTRA announced that Grey had agreed to hand over “documentation related to its relationship with Townhouse.”
According to at least one party, McCarroll may be headed to a certain tech company with a big Grey connection. Martini will continue running the global organization.