London - Saatchi & Saatchi has promoted Leigh Thomas, the head of account management, to the role of UK managing director and named Michelle Greenhalgh, a client partner, as UK MD of Saatchi & Saatchi S, the network's sustainability arm.
Thomas (pictured) will take responsibility for day-to-day running of the agency, freeing up Magnus Djaba, the recently appointed chief executive, to focus on growth and strategic positioning for the business. She replaces Michael Rebelo, who was promoted to CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia at the end of last year.
Thomas joined Saatchi and Saatchi in 2010 to run Wall's and Toyota GB, and to head up account management. Prior to joining Saatchi & Saatchi she led the charge at Lowe London to activate the right channel communication across all brands, prior to which, she was client services director at AMV BBDO. She has won creative and effectiveness awards for numerous brands that she has worked on which include Nike, British Airways, John Lewis, Aviva, Sure and The Economist. Thomas is also on the board of the Hofesh Shechter Dance Company.
Greenhalgh, who retains her account responsibility for Visa Europe and Weight Watchers, adds her new role in the wake of the promotion of Sebastian Dreyfus, the former UK MD of Saatchi & Saatchi S, to managing director of EMEA. She will now oversee the continued growth of the business in the UK.
Greenhalgh joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2005 as business leader on Toyota GB. In 2010 she was promoted to client partner and was part of the team who won Weight Watchers UK in June 2011. Greenhalgh was a founder member of the M&C Saatchi start-up in New Zealand in 1996. In her time there, Greenhalgh worked on the Qantas, Heineken and Burger King accounts.
She went on to work at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney looking after Toyota and UNICEF, which began as a non-paying client engaged on a one-off emergency appeal campaign which she helped grow into a $10 million fee paying account.
Saatchi & Saatchi has also promoted Charlie Pym, the T-Mobile and Kerry Foods business leader, to business development director, replacing Mel Portelli, who has left to return to her native Australia.
Pym joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2010 as business leader on T-Mobile and Kerry Foods. Over the last 12 months he's overseen a number of award-winning campaigns including ‘Welcome Back' and ‘The Royal Wedding Spoof' for T-Mobile, plus the ‘What We Want' campaign for Wall's. He was also part of the team who won Mattessons prior to Christmas.
Prior to joining Saatchi & Saatchi, Charlie worked at M&C Saatchi London for 4.5 years across brands including RBS, Direct Line & Kingsmill. Charlie moved to London in 2006 from his home town, Melbourne, where he worked with M&C Saatchi and Publicis Mojo on a number of highly awarded campaigns, including ‘Campaign of the Year' and ‘Best of Show', for ANZ Bank, Tourism Victoria and Fosters.
The appointments are the first to be made by Djaba since he joined Saatchi & Saatchi from sister agency Fallon in November.
He said: "Since I started, I have been impressed by the attitude that exists here - our people are young and ambitious enough not to be constrained by their years of experience, and talented enough to want to shake things up. Leigh, Michelle and Charlie are prime examples: keen to explore everything that's possible without worrying about what might be impossible."
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