LONDON: Former Bell Pottinger and 19 Entertainment finance chief Peter Harries has joined Next Fifteen as interim CFO in the wake of the departure of David Dewhurst.
Next Fifteen announced Dewhurst's resignation at the end of last month, at the same time it issued a profit warning due to audit issues at agency Bite.
Next Fifteen said it is looking for a permanent CFO, and Harries may be a candidate.
Harries was CFO of 19 Entertainment from 2004 to 2010 and was group finance director of Capital Radio before that. He was interim CFO at Bell Pottinger between August 2012 and June 2013, and recently completed a stint as interim finance director at Centaur Media.
A year ago, Bite was forced to write off nearly $3 million in stolen assets for the 2012 fiscal year due to a fraud case involving a senior member of the finance team in Bite's San Francisco office.
Earlier this month, Next Fifteen saw a 65% drop in pre-tax profit in the fiscal year ending July 31 to about $3.37 million, compared with FY 2012. Revenue was up 2% organically, year-over-year, in that period.
This story originally appeared on the website of PRWeek UK.
