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DraftFCB announces new organisational and operational structure

Following the June 1 announcement that Interpublic Group planned to create a revolutionary new agency model by combining its Draft and Foote Cone & Belding units to create DraftFCB with Howard Draft as its chairman and CEO, a 90-day integration process began. With Laurence Boschetto, most recently president and COO of Draft's global operations, and Jonathan Harries, global chief creative officer for DraftFCB, named co-chairs of a 35-person Integration Committee, the agency has made significant progress in determining the optimal operational structure of the new organisation.

"During the initial stage of our integration process, a strong and unified management team emerged. Laurence acted as the driving force in assembling our lead team and keeping our day-to-day operations running smoothly and Jonathan served as our creative conscience," said Howard Draft. "We and Interpublic are fully aligned on our vision, which is to create an innovative, creative, comprehensive communications company that addresses today's marketing issues of accountability and ROI, the role of new and emerging media, the empowered individual, and the proliferation of new channels - all without fighting over budgets."

"Our industry is experiencing dramatic change and our agencies must respond accordingly. That is why we brought together two strong and iconic brands under one leadership with the vision to erase the lines between advertising and marketing services, resulting in recommendations based purely on what's best for clients. DraftFCB is what the market demands today, and we are very pleased at the traction this new organisation has already achieved, as evident in their constructive conversations with existing clients and their early success in winning new business," said Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of Interpublic.

"Draft FCB is the first global, behavior-based, fully inclusive, highly creative and accountable marketing communications organization operating against a single P&L," said Laurence Boschetto, who is being promoted to president and chief operating officer of Draft FCB. "We believe integration is nothing more than a strategy that enables us to do what's best for our clients' business -- which means reaching consumers through the right channel at the right time in the most effective and efficient way to deliver results."

Added Jonathan Harries, "Draft FCB is a new breed of agency, a place where we as business problem solvers will use what we're calling 'Insight to InciteSM' consumer behavior. These days everyone is talking about Return On Investment, but what we're offering clients is 'Return On IdeasSM.' Ultimately, we see DraftFCB as an organisation where creativity will supersede everything but accountability."

In being genuinely media-, discipline- and channel-agnostic, DraftFCB will offer and recommend whatever mix of marketing communications options are best for building its clients' businesses, ranging from branding, advertising, direct and relationship marketing, promotions, retail, digital, sponsorship, and media - with a disciplined, relentless focus on creativity, accountability and metrics.

The new agency will officially begin to operate with one P&L on Jan. 1, 2007. Due to the size of its network that now employs more than 9,000 people across 110 countries, it will take another 12-15 months to complete the global roll-out of the DraftFCB offering.

NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Joining Howard Draft and Jonathan Harries at the corporate level in managing DraftFCB's global network is Laurence Boschetto as president and COO.

"Laurence has been unofficially acting as president and COO of this new agency since the onset of the integration process, and he has helped engineer the creation of Draft FCB with energy, focus, humor and sometimes by sheer force of will," said Draft. "He has more than earned this promotion, and it's only natural that he continues in this vital role."

Bob Oates, most recently the chief financial officer at Foote Cone & Belding Worldwide, is taking on the same role at Draft FCB. Harries, Boschetto and Oates will each report directly to Draft, as will Wally Petersen, most recently chief communications officer at Draft who has taken on the same role at DraftFCB.

Teresa Fellows, most recently the head of global operations at Draft, is being named chief administrative officer for DraftFCB, reporting to Boschetto. In this role she will oversee the global Human Resources, Information Technology, Real Estate, and Project Management functions.
CREATIVE REPORTING STRUCTURE

Harries is embarking on a global mission to build and enhance DraftFCB's creative profile. Reporting to him will be the chief creative officers from Latin America, the US and Canada, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia Pacific. In non-U.S. markets where Draft and FCB each had an agency, the creative heads for the newly combined organisation will be named at a later date.

OPERATING UNIT HEADS

Additional members of senior management who have been promoted to new roles and will report directly to Boschetto are:

- Mark Modesto, the newly named president of DraftFCB Chicago. Modesto most recently was co-president of FCB Chicago. Tom O'Keefe, the EVP/executive creative director of FCB Chicago, is being promoted to chief creative officer of DraftFCB Chicago. Yvonne Furth, the president and CEO of Draft Chicago, is being named chief operating officer of the new Chicago agency, which will now rank as the city's largest agency with more than 1,100 employees and several of the area's largest clients, including Boeing, ADM, Kraft Foods, Abbott Labs and John Deere on its roster.

- Mark Pacchini, who most recently served as co-president of FCB Chicago alongside Modesto, has been named president of Global Accounts, China & Corridor Offices. DraftFCB offices in Greater China, Seattle, San Francisco and Irvine, California will report into him. His specific client responsibilities will now include Boeing, SC Johnson, Kraft, Yum!, Coors, Beiersdorf, CA, and Motorola (the latter working with Pam Larrick and Rafael deGuzman).

- Peter DeNunzio, who joined DraftFCB New York as its president earlier this month from Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Christoph Becker, previously chief creative officer of FCB New York, is being named the chief creative officer of DraftFCB in that market. Wendy Lurrie, previously the general manager of Draft New York, is taking on that same job at DraftFCB New York -- an agency with nearly 1,700 employees that in recent weeks has been added to the Citigroup and Merrill Lynch rosters while picking up incremental business from Hewlett-Packard and CA.

- Dana Maiman remains the president of FCB Healthcare, one of the world's leading marketing communications agencies targeting healthcare professionals. It will be re-branded as DraftFCB Healthcare.

REGIONAL MANAGEMENT

Outside the US, DraftFCB is installing a regional management structure, the leaders of which will also report into Boschetto. These include:

- David Florence, most recently the president and CEO of Draft's international operations, has been named regional president for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

- Rafael deGuzman, most recently the president and CEO of FCB International, is now the regional president overseeing Latin America, Korea and Japan.

- Anil Kapoor, most recently the managing director and CEO of FCB-Ulka in India, will serve as regional president for India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and The Philippines.

GLOBAL CAPABILITY HEADS

To maintain its leadership edge across each of the major disciplines DraftFCB offers clients, strong global champions for each discipline are being named. Referred to by Boschetto, to whom they will report, as "best in breed" specialists in their respective areas, each will focus on delivering clients a clear competitive advantage with their offering. These leaders include:

- Pam Larrick, most recently chairman and CEO of FCBi, is being named chief digital, direct & CRM Officer at DraftFCB. The "I" function, which stands for the "individual" consumer, will become a global department within the main agency.

- Tony Weisman, the chief marketing officer at Draft Chicago, will now oversee New Business efforts for the global organisation as chief growth officer.

- Janet Pines, most recently EVP/global chief strategy officer at Foote Cone & Belding, is being named chief insight officer.

- Vita Harris, most recently EVP/director of insight services at Draft, is being named chief incite officer.

- Richard Gagnon, most recently president of FCB Media in the U.S. - which was never spun off from the main agency - will take on a worldwide role as chief media officer.

- Lor Gold, most recently the chief creative officer at Draft Chicago, is being promoted to a corporate role as chief promotions, retail & advertising Officer.

GLOBAL ADMINISTRATION

Direct reports to Chief Administrative Officer Teresa Fellows include:

- Beverly Popielarz, most recently chief talent officer at FCB, who is taking on the same role at the new agency.

- Guy Hanton, who as part of Interpublic's GIS unit served as chief information officer at Draft, will continue in that role at DraftFCB.

- Carla Pawlowski, previously SVP/Director of Real Estate & Procurement at Draft, has been given the same title at DraftFCB.

- Linda Wu, VP and director of operations at Draft, has been named VP/director of the Project Management Office at the new agency.

FINANCE REPORTING STRUCTURE

Reporting into Bob Oates will be all regional and local chief financial officers in the DraftFCB network. The regional heads include Suzanne Welling, most recently the CFO for Draft who has been named CFO for DraftFCB North America; Kathryn Herrick, the CFO for Europe and the Middle East; James Holland, the CFO for Asia Pacific and Africa; and Juan Carlos Gomez, the CFO for Latin America.

Welling will be taking on some of the financial reporting responsibilities of Ed Harrigan, formerly the chief administrative officer at FCB, who will now handle special projects. Oates will also oversee the Legal function housed within DraftFCB.

NEW ACCOUNT STRUCTURE

"We have created an innovative new way to structure ourselves to service clients, with our client and their individual customers at the center surrounded by creative, account, media, planning and data experts who work together fluidly to deliver creative, effective and customer behavior-based marketing solutions to business problems," said Boschetto.

"To achieve this, we are committed to investing significantly in a world-class training and development program which we expect to roll out in 2007," said Howard Draft. "We are determined to make DraftFCB the place where the smartest and most talented people in our business want to work."

PHASE ONE COMPLETE

"I'm extremely pleased with all that the DraftFCB Integration Committee has accomplished in three relatively short months, from defining our go-to-market strategy and positioning to creating a whole new way to work that puts the client and the individual consumer right at the center of everything we do. We've especially appreciated the supportive role Interpublic has played throughout this process with the active involvement of Philippe Krakowsky and Frank Mergenthaler. We're now entering Phase 2 of our process which will involve naming the leadership teams at the local level and aligning our operations in several major markets," said Draft.

"It's immensely gratifying that over the course of the past 90 days we've been able to attract new business from such clients as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Atari, while making it to the final four in the current Wal-Mart review. This is a terrific testament to the hard work and dedication of our people as well as our clients' enthusiastic response to our bold new approach to solving their business problems," concluded Draft.

ABOUT DRAFTFCB

On June 1, 2006, Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG) announced plans to bring together Draft and Foote Cone & Belding to create DraftFCB -- a new breed of agency focused on solving business problems while delivering its clients a high Return On IdeasSM. The agency is the first global, behavior-based, fully inclusive, highly creative and accountable marketing communications organisation to operate against a single P&L. Being media-, discipline- and channel-agnostic, DraftFCB taps into over 130 years of expertise to recommend whatever mix of marketing communications options are best for building its clients' businesses, ranging from branding, advertising, direct and relationship marketing, promotions, retail, digital, sponsorship, and media - with a disciplined, relentless focus on creativity, accountability and metrics. Its clients include Boeing, CA, Coca-Cola, Fisher Price, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard, Hilton, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Levi Strauss, Motorola, Saab, SC Johnson, United States Postal Service, and Verizon, among others. The Draft FCB network spans 110 countries, with more than 9,000 employees worldwide.



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C-Cubed Communications
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21 Sep 2006 14:03

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