CHICAGO: Patricia Pearson, the president/CEO of Publicis Dialog's Chicago outfit, has quit the agency 'on mutual agreement.'
CHICAGO: Patricia Pearson, the president/CEO of Publicis Dialog's Chicago outfit, has quit the agency 'on mutual agreement.'
'It didn't seem to fit,' said Paul Fullmer, chairman of the Chicago office and the former majority owner of Selz/Seabolt Communications, Pearson's former agency, which was bought by Dialog at the start of this year.
Sources in the Chicago PR world had speculated Pearson would leave Selz soon after the Publicis takeover - despite comments to the contrary from Publicis - because of long-standing differences between her and Fullmer.
Her role will be filled by Rose Ann Anschuetz, who was, until April, head of Cohn & Wolfe's Chicago office. Fullmer said he had been courting Anschuetz even before she took the Cohn & Wolfe position and renewed contact when she left that job.
Anschuetz has a background in integrated communications, having worked for ad giant Leo Burnett.
'She has done the integrated approach and understands the other components very well,' Fullmer said.
Steve Aiello, president of Cohn & Wolfe, had said on Anschuetz's departure that the two differed in opinion over the shop's direction. Revenue for the Cohn & Wolfe Chicago office had fallen to dollars 2.5 million in 1999, down about dollars 500,000 from the prior year.
Anschuetz declined to comment on why she left Cohn & Wolfe.
