Ogilvy executive chairman Moult steps down; CEO Baxter assumes Moult’s responsibilities

Tom Moult has stepped down as executive chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Australia after less than two years in the role. 

Andrew Baxter, Ogilvy’s Australian chief executive officer, will assume Moult’s responsibilities and continue his national leadership of the group across Australia.

Moult joined Ogilvy from the chairman role at Euro RSCG South Pacific Group in November 2010.

Says Mike Connaghan, CEO of STW: “Tom came to Ogilvy to help reinvigorate the agency and prepare it for the next phase of its growth plan. Now that Andrew Baxter is firmly established in Sydney – in the role of the national CEO, Tom has decided that his mission is largely complete. I’d like to thank Tom for his leadership over the past eighteen months and we look forward to accelerating the execution of Ogilvy Australia’s strategy.”

Ogilvy & Mather is majority owned by STW Group in Australia.

Says Baxter: “We have made good progress in the past twelve months. We now have without doubt the best strategic planners and best digital teams in Australia and this is showing through in the work we are doing for our clients and on the new business front.

“We have won the Vodafone and Beaurepaires business, and we have a good new business pipeline. We have done some highly successful work for the launch of Australia’s newest bank, the Bank of Melbourne, and more recently for the Qantas Group’s new social travel business, Hooroo.com.”

These successes have come off the back of Ogilvy’s efforts to attract the smartest strategists in the market, such as Mark Sareff as national head of strategy, Gavin MacMillan as newly created head of brand strategy for Ogilvy Melbourne and Gerry Cyron as head of brand strategy at Ogilvy Sydney.

Says Baxter (left): “We will continue to invest in our core strengths of strategic thinking and creating great ideas that deliver outstanding results for our clients, with the recent successful and highly recognized campaigns for Coca-Cola “Share a Coke” and AAMI’s “Rhonda” testament to that investment.

“Our future lies in our ability to create and execute powerful ideas that solve our clients’ problems and generate demand – through multiple channels to consumers wherever they may be. To achieve that, we need the best planners and creative people. We also need to accelerate the integration of DTDigital’s expanded digital capability with Ogilvy’s other proven specialist businesses, to build an agency that provides channel-neutral solutions in an increasingly digital world.”

Baxter said the latest leadership changes represent the next stage in the overall evolution and consolidation of Ogilvy’s businesses in Sydney and Melbourne – a plan designed to more effectively provide marketers with an agency offering more closely aligned to their future needs in a highly digital marketplace.

The changes include:

Michael McEwan is promoted to general manager of BADJAR Ogilvy Advertising Melbourne.

Nick Muncaster is promoted to general manager of OgilvyOne Melbourne. Muncaster’s promotion will allow Brian Vella, who previously led OgilvyOne Melbourne, to focus solely on managing DTDigital’s ever-expanding operations across Australia and into Asia.

Andrew Egan is promoted to general manager of Ogilvy Australia’s Growth Companies, leading the strategic blueprint and operational development of fast growing companies such as Ogilvy Action, Ogilvy Red, Fabric and Etcom. Egan will continue his leadership of Ogilvy’s MYER group.

Ogilvy also intends to reinvigorate the successful partnership between Baxter and STW chief digital officer and DTDigital chairman, David Trewern, who together partnered to transform Ogilvy into the leading agency group in Melbourne today. Trewern will continue in his dual roles and will work closely with Baxter in the months ahead to accelerate the digital integration plan in Sydney.

In the past six months, the agency has made substantial investments in building a team of world-class digital experts in Sydney. Phil Whitehouse was appointed as DTDigital Sydney’s general manager and he has already hired a number of high-calibre digital professionals such as Robert Prescott as UX director, Jason Massarotto as design director, and technology director Ben Townsend.