Grey London is reeling in the wake of three executive departures, all chairmen. CCO Nils Leonard, CEO Lucy Jameson and managing director Natalie Graeme have all resigned.
“Nils Leonard, chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Grey London, and Lucy Jameson, CEO, will be leaving the agency to start a new venture,” Grey EMEA president and CEO David Patton said in a statement. “They have our most sincere thanks and best wishes for continued success.”
In the statement, Patton also announced that Leo Rayman will become CEO of Grey London, effective immediately. “Leo has done a superlative job as Chief Strategy Officer of the agency and brings a stellar background from his days at Adam & Eve and DDB,” he added.
More About Advertising reports that executive creative directors Vicki Maguire and Dominic Goldman will lead creative at Grey London going forward.
Rayman joined Grey London as head of planning at the beginning of 2013, following a little over a year and a half in that position at Adam & Eve London. He was promoted to his position as CSO last March after Jameson became CEO in the wake of former CEO Chris Hirst‘s departure for Havas. Last December, global CCO and New York president Tor Myhren also left the agency, to join Apple as vice president of marketing communications and last month, 13-year agency veteran, executive creative director Stephen Krauss left Grey New York to become CCO at The Wonderful Company in Los Angeles.
The departure seems to come as a surprise to the agency, as well as holding company WPP and the larger agency world. Adweek’s Tim Nudd had dinner with the three departing executives last week at Cannes. They mentioned nothing about their pending exit, and neither did the other Grey employees who attended the dinner.