Ben Langdon, London-based EMEA chairman and board director of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup since September 2001, was summoned to New York Tuesday by network chairman/ceo John J Dooner Junior – only to depart jobless from the meeting.
Dooner, who ascended to the Interpublic Group’s ceo hotseat in the late nineties from a mirror role at McCann, was bounced back to his old job in February in the wake of the McCann accounting scandal – fortunate, many believe, to have escaped so lightly in view of the ensuing series of profit restatements which culminated in March’s admission that some $347 million (€300.04m; £207.31m) had been incorrectly reported.
Back in the McCann driving seat, Dooner donned sackcloth and ashes: “I was at McCann during some of these [fiscal] events, and, you know, I have to tell you that that keeps me or makes me more embarrassed and more humbled, and I think, also, therefore more resolved that this would never happen again.”
Since his return to the coalface, Dooner's newfound humility has resulted in the rolling of a number of senior heads in the network’s EMEA operation, Langdon’s being the latest and preceded by chief strategic planning officer Paul Twivy and Universal McCann regional director Brian Jacobs.
McCann’s deputy regional director and vice-president David Warden will caretake the EMEA operation until a succession plan is formalised.
Data sourced from: BrandRepublic (UK); additional content by WARC staff
