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Melrose displaced, King and Burt take M&C Saatchi reins

M&C Saatchi’s chief executive Darryn Melrose has resigned from the agency to pursue
opportunities outside of the advertising industry and he will be replaced by his old AIM Proximity buddies Tony Burt and Dave King, who will be joint chief executive officers. 

Melrose, who replaced Nick Baylis as chief executive in late 2009 after six years with AIM Proximity, wasn’t able to be contacted, but said in a release: “I have
now been on the agency side of the industry for ten years. Reaching certain
milestones does create a need for personal review and reflection on what goals
have been achieved, and what needs to come next. So I have set down what I want
to achieve in the forthcoming years, and sadly that means resigning as chief executive of
M&C Saatchi. This agency has been terrific with some of the best people I
have worked with. I will genuinely miss the team and the fantastic clients who
have made working here so rewarding.” 

  • Melrose got back to us, but was remaining fairly cryptic about what those goals were: “I’m not going to make any statement at this time, other than what was said in my quote, it sums things up pretty accurately, and much more eloquently! I’m sure that Dave, Tony and the team will do a great job with the agency into the future, but I have other goals that I want to achieve.”

While sharing the chief executive responsibilities, Burt and King will also retain their head of strategy and executive creative director roles respectively. And King, who has recently made a few headlines after the ‘Swap a Ginga’ campaign, says he’s very sad to see Melrose go.

“He’s become a great mate and I know he’ll be brilliant back client side. He’s
mentioned some interesting plans for the future so watch this space. I’m also
incredibly excited by the opportunities we have as an agency. We’ve got a great
team of staff and clients so there’s plenty to look forward to.”

Tony Burt added: “I’ve
worked with Darryn for nearly four years now and it has been a lot of fun. I’ve
no doubt he’ll do well in his next venture. I’m now really looking forward to
what lies ahead for us. We have a great team across our two offices and the
agency has compiled strength in key disciplines over recent years. I’m excited
to see us build on these as we continue to deliver great work for our clients.”

This follows hot on the heels of the departure of Y&R’s chief executive Jon Ramage

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