Genardini rejoins WPP to head new Adventure group

<p>SEOUL: Richard Genardini has taken over the reins as president and </p><p>chief operating officer of Adventure Worldwide, Korea's 11th largest </p><p>agency, which WP acquired. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is Genardini's second stint Korea. He lived in the country between </p><p>1993 and 1998 when he was president of J. Walter Thompson in Seoul. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>There are no plans to merge Adventure into JWT or any of WPP's other </p><p>agencies in Korea, he said. "We are not merging, Adventure is a wholly </p><p>separate brand. WPP has strong multinational agencies in Korea and now </p><p>it has a strong Korean agency. If we tried to mix them, we'd lose those </p><p>strengths and probably the clients as well. We will be building </p><p>Adventure. For example, there will also be a PR company and a design </p><p>group under the Adventure brand." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>For WPP, Korea is a key market. "We see South Korea as one of the four </p><p>most important markets in Asia-Pacific," Genardini said, pointing to </p><p>China, Japan and India as the other major markets. WPP's objective is to </p><p>increase Asia-Pacific's proportion of its business, from 14 per cent </p><p>currently, to well over 20 per cent in the next five to 10 years. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>