Boss takes the helm as key staff leave

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Young & Rubicam's Auckland office is bleeding senior staff and big-spending clients, and Wellington boss Ross Goldsack has stepped in to try to shore up the agency's flagging fortunes.

Peter Scutts, managing director of Young & Rubicam, did not renew his five-year contract, which ran out this month. He will leave the agency tomorrow.

Creative director Gordon Clarke, who has been with the agency for four years, resigned late last week and will also leave the offices tomorrow. Three other creatives have been made redundant.

Goldsack who has been commuting to Auckland, will move permanently by mid-January. He leaves creative director Chrissie La Hood and general manager Dennis Carroll running the Wellington office.

Scutts, who had been asked to stay on while management sorted out a replacement, was leaving tomorrow because "I wanted to get in there," says Goldsack.

Clarke is leaving because Scutts is going: "I joined with Peter Scutts and it was a two-man act, really."

The redundancies were from teams working on the Tower and Woolworths accounts.

Young & Rubicam's Mitsubishi account is also up for review.

"The company has really struggled in the last six months," says Clarke.

"Woolworths was our largest account and it had been for the last 16 years ... then we lost Tower and that was another significant piece of business."

But Scutts and Clarke deny there was any pressure for them to clear out after the agency's glum year.

Scutts says he is now moving out of advertising, and Clarke is looking for another job as a creative director.

Goldsack, who has a 20 per cent shareholding in the business, says of his move: "I have a vested interest in seeing it become more successful than it is. I've had to make some hard decisions and I have some long-term plans."