NEWS: It’s all change at Welbeck as board gets a reshuffle

Welbeck Golin/Harris has promoted its deputy managing director, Alison

Clarke to managing director, and recruited two new board directors as

part of a major shake-up at the agency.

Clarke, 35, succeeds former MD Ann Brunton who relinquishes the role

after 11 years in the job, but remains as chief executive. John Martin

continues as chairman.

Clarke, who joined the Shandwick-owned agency in 1985 as an account

executive after three years with the Mars Group, is joined on the board

by Chris Genasi, 34, currently an associate director with Scope

Communications, and Joanne Milroy, a Welbeck account director. The

appointments are part of an agency drive to develop the business and to

move away from what it perceives as its pigeon-holing as a consumer

agency.

The staff changes coincide with the launch, next month, of the agency’s

first advertising campaign for five years, and the refocusing and

renaming of two of its three divisions.

Welbeck Corporate and Financial becomes Welbeck Corporate, under the

leadership of Genasi, while its Business and Technology unit is renamed

Business to Business, under Milroy.

Welbeck Consumer, which is headed by Clarke, retains its former title.