Eight days in the past we wrote about “stormy water at Gray” because the WPP-owned company, now a part of AKQA Group, misplaced a raft of senior executives. When one at all times asks: is catastrophe looming or was it deliberate? Or, as is usually the case, components of each.
Most businesses would have responded and silence and, finally, sulks. Others with ridiculous menaces. AKQA, at all times a category act, stated “truthful sufficient” however watch this house.
The house has been crammed, to an extent at the very least, by the rent of Laura Maness (above) as Gray’s new world CEO. We reported this morning that she’d left Havas, which has taken the fairly weird resolution to fold its inventive enterprise into Well being.
Maness says: “As solely the sixth CEO in 105 years, the chance to renew, impress and develop a legendary and celebrated company like Gray — mixed with the unrivaled calibre of expertise from throughout the globe — is extremely significant. I look ahead to constructing on the sturdy basis of Gray’s storytelling prowess and famously efficient work by fuelling a tradition of creativity, innovation, and steady impression.”
AKQA Group CEO Ajaz Ahmed says: “Laura is entrepreneurial, dynamic and energetic. She unites by constructing neighborhood — not hierarchy — inspiring with an enlightened management method and a confirmed monitor document. With a give attention to innovation and as a champion of multidisciplinary options for purchasers, Laura is the best CEO to assist form Gray’s strategic imaginative and prescient and path forward. I’m wanting ahead to working in partnership with Laura and the group at Gray.”
We’ve commented right here earlier than that it appeared odd for WPP to place AKQA, a world-leading digital company that roams far wider than advertisements, along with Gray, a Madison Avenue staple, not often recognized for its creativity. That modified for a couple of years with Jim Heekin on the helm, Tor Myhren (now Apple’s inventive supremo), Nils Leonard in London and a raft of succesful executives, one among whom Chris Hirst has additionally lately left Havas. Would possibly Hirst discover his means again to Gray?
AKQA founder and boss Ahmed is adamant that that one of the best ways to protect an company model is to not muddy it in a pressured merger, as a result of the weaker of the 2 simply ebbs away. Gray as a model inside AKQA is way stronger, he thinks.
Maness is a giant name however Ahmed appears energised by the prospects at Gray. He’s defied the percentages efficiently earlier than, most notably by surviving the Sir Martin Sorrell years on the WPP helm in a single piece and with fame intact.
