As Media went to press, industry sources said that his departure could not have come at a worse time for the Publicis Groupe-owned network following the sudden defection of regional ECD Craig Davis to J. Walter Thompson Europe, Middle East and Africa. They added that strategic planning director Sandy Thompson was also moving but to a new job within the Saatchis network.
Pitcher has been at the helm of Saatchis for the past seven years, during which time he built the agency into a creative powerhouse. Saatchis was named Media's Agency of the Year in 2000. However, sources said that his exit coincided with a plan by its parent company, Paris-based Publicis Groupe, to merge some of its offices with Saatchis in the region and run them as 'two-door' operations, in which back-room functions such as adminstration and IT are shared. The group already works this way in Vietnam, and Hong Kong is expected to fall in line soon.
Although sources believe Pitcher is being considered for the top regional job at Grey, they stressed that the hunt was still in its early days and that a shortlist was not yet ready.
Sources also said that other regional agency heads had been approached.
Observers described the Grey job as challenging, not only from a pure business angle, as the network has formidable operators in sub-regional roles, including Viveca Chan in Greater China, Chris Leong in Southeast Asia, Nirvik Singh in India and Paul Gardner in Australia. They added that Rosenkranz' replacement would need to have a multi-disciplinary track record since Grey generates a sizeable share of revenues below-the-line compared with most other agencies.
