In place of Ramsey's post, JWT has named a senior US-based executive Bryan Cooper to the new role of managing director for North and Southeast Asia. JWT has also split the region into four "clusters" - Northeast and Southeast Asia, central Asia, Japan and Australasia - and said it would inject additional resources to boost creativity and planning at the local level.
Miles Colebrook, JWT's Asia-Pacific chairman, praised Ramsey's leadership and vision, saying he put the network back on a strong growth track after it was hit by the late '90s Asian financial crisis.
Ramsey's contribution in reviving JWT culminated in the network winning Media's 2002 Agency of the Year award. "Kevin is a huge talent and he had huge ambitions. The question was whether our ambition was his ambition," said Colebrook.
He added that the move to divide the global operation beyond the traditional four regions would ensure JWT's long-term growth prospects.
"One of the advantages is that it empowers decision-making further down the company because clients are operating at faster turnaround times, which means that teams on the ground need to be empowered."
However, industry executives said the speed of Ramsey's departure could hurt morale and the growth momentum since the network was singled out as the first to be restructured despite its strong performance. Colebrook insisted that rapid changes in the business world required JWT to be "externally-driven; we have to tailor our operations so that our effectiveness to clients is maximised". He added that JWT's global agency operation could also be similarly restructured depending on results in Asia.