Managing director of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne Peter Biggs has said he will stand by his incoming executive creative director James McGrath in any circumstance.
McGrath, who signed on with Clemenger in September from George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, but doesn’t start at the agency until January, is being sued by his former employer. Documents lodged with the Federal Court this month allege PEP had a secret agreement with former managing director Anthony Heraghty and McGrath, agreeing to a $750,000 incentive between them if they stayed on in their roles for 12 months, when a further $750,000 would be paid.
But leading advertising executives have questioned why GPY&R would sue the marketing director of its biggest client—Heraghty is now marketing director at Foster’s—saying it must be confident of winning substantial damages to take such a big risk. Executives at GPY&R are not available for comment on the case.
Biggs wouldn’t confirm whether he knew about the situation when he hired McGrath.
He said: “I knew that WPP are litigious and I knew that WPP are very worried about all sorts of phantoms and I just look at what’s happening with James and Anthony. All I’ve heard about Anthony is that he’s a man of great integrity, I know that James is an honourable man; if I was looking at what WPP is doing simply as a human being and a commercial perspective I honestly don’t understand it. I would absolutely stand by James in any circumstance.”
This week NAB also confirmed George Patterson Y&R had lost its share of the NAB business, with the account consolidated with two agencies: Clemenger BBDO and See.
NAB is the second third major account win for the agency since Biggs joined seven months ago. Primus awarded its $10m account to the agency and Fonterra has consolidated its $100m global account with BBDO/Omnicom, a pitch lead by Australia, Asia and New Zealand.
Biggs confirmed this week Clemenger Melbourne has picked up Fonterra brands including Perfect Italiano, Bega, Western Star, Connoisseur, Mainland Snacks and new products and Anlene are currently moving into the agency.
See this week’s B&T magazine (November 17) for more.
