CAREERS: DDB signs Cozens among top-level hires

The biggest appointment it has made was the hiring of Mike Cozens, who recently quit as Red Bates' creative director after the unit was merged back into its mother agency, Bates. Cozens takes over from Edward Shen, who has left DDB to move into television commercial directing.

Another senior hire is Eunice Wong to fill a newly-created general manager's position. Wong, who was previously a senior vice-president at PCCW Skyhorse, will handle the McDonald's account.

There are now four general managers at the agency each looking after sizeable accounts. The other three are Mark Crouch on Park 'n' Shop; Jonathan Holburt on DDB's newly-acquired Peninsula Hotel business; and Wendy Ho who handles a range of businesses, including Cable TV and MTR.

Other major hires include former Grey regional account director on the Procter & Gamble business, Jennie To, as senior account director, and Alice Leung, previously regional research manager at Ipsos, as research manager.

Aaron Lau, DDB Greater China president and chief executive officer, said the agency could afford to make significant investments in new hires because "we have a pretty robust client base, which is still spending healthily".

He added the strategy behind beefing up DDB's headcount was aimed at providing clients with more resources. "It is in times like this that the agency should be deploying more staff to help the client's business.

The client needs more rather than less support to get through the tough times. If we didn't do more and bring in better results, the client will definitely cut back on spending. So we've taken a more proactive approach."

Lau predicted 2002 would emerge as a strong year for new business wins for DDB. "As other agencies cut back on staffing, clients will inevitably become dissatisfied because the agency has less resources to deploy. As we strengthen our capabilities through the hiring of strong talent, we should become more of an attractive proposition to non-DDB clients,

he said.