Following the departure of Co-founder Lord Saatchi and a group of Non-Executive Directors from M&C Saatchi last week, the agency has lost two more senior figures in the form of its CEO and Chief Creative Officer.
The Drum confirmed that Giles Hedger and Justin Tindall had taken voluntary redundancy. Chairman Tim Duffy will become interim CEO, while Joint Deputy ECD Matt Lee, and Creative Director Mark Goodwin will head up its creative department.
Hedger said: “I have decided to leave M&C Saatchi as part of the voluntary redundancy programme triggered by the loss of NatWest.
I have written to the agency to say that putting myself forward was the only fair and honourable thing to do. In doing so, I hope to spare others less senior than myself.”
Tindall said: “Following the recent announcement of a redundancy programme, it was unconscionable for me to make judgments about the livelihoods of others without putting myself forward first. As such, and with a heavy heart, I volunteered for redundancy.”
The agency accepted both proposals for redundancy, not long after doing the same for Maurice Saatchi, Lord Dobbs, Sir Michael Peat and Lorna Tilbian, who stood down last week.
2019 has seen M&C Saatchi involved in a serious scandal after it was discovered that a number of accounting irregularities had arisen.
Auditors PwC found similar practices had potentially been in use since 2014. It has also seen the agency lose important clients and profit warnings.
M&C Saatchi was founded in 1995 by Jeremy Sinclair, Bill Muirhead, David Kershaw, as well as Maurice and Charles Saatchi, who at that time had been forced out of the agency they co-founded, Saatchi & Saatchi.
