Euro loses long-serving CEO Stening

Euro RSCG's Grand China division has lost its founding CEO Peter Stening, but his departure is not expected to affect the network's sprawling operation. "Peter put strong management in place with a view to his retirement," said Euro Hong Kong managing director David Morgan. At the same time, Euro's Asia-Pacific CEO Vincent Digonet will oversee the Grand China operation. In setting up the Grand China group in the late '90s, Mr Stening had helped minimise the impact of the Asian financial meltdown on the network, developing business in the crisis-free China market to drive growth. On top of overseeing Grand China, which grouped Euro's agencies in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, Mr Stening was also executive vice-president for North Asia. He had been with Euro for more than a decade. However, Mr Stening's exit coincides with the departure of one of Grand China's biggest client - Philips - and several local accounts. According to ACNielsen, Philips billed a little over Rmb 167 million (about USdollars 20.17 million) in China and Hong Kong last year. While the Philips' loss was the result of a global realignment, the last 12 months have also seen the departure of Dragonair, KMB, Prudential and recently HSBC from the Hong Kong office. Mr Morgan said the agency had more than made up for the account losses, winning more than HKdollars 150 million in new business in the last six months. New business wins included Worldcom, CNN and Cartier. Industry sources had, however, linked the account losses to Grand China's lingering Internet hangover. "Having an interactive division to support offline clients is one thing, but pitching for every dotcom business is another," said an agency source. Grand China was one of the first to seize Internet-related business opportunities, picking up seven dotcom accounts by April last year, before Mr Morgan's arrival. "There has been speculation that we had over-focused on dotcoms, but the issue has been addressed by management," Mr Morgan said, adding that dotcom clients now accounted for a small portion of the business. "Euro was not the only agency which suffered at the hands of dotcoms and dotcom closures."

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