Ian Haworth has left WPP after nearly five years in senior international creative roles to go it alone and launch his own consultancy, Haworth House.
Haworth joined the agency group in 2015 as executive creative director to lead Wunderman UK’s creative department, as well as oversee the creative output across the agency’s EMEA region.
He was promoted to chief creative officer in 2017 and last year, following the 2018 Wunderman merger with JWT, Haworth was appointed global creative lead on WPP’s Team GSK, the unit solely dedicated to the pharmaceutical company’s advertising and marketing account.
Prior to WPP, Haworth had spent 14 years at Rapp, latterly as global chief creative officer and chairman. At the time, his exit from the Omnicom agency raised more than a few eyebrows, with one insider insisting “he had Rapp running through his veins”.
One of the most respected creatives in the data-driven marketing industry, Haworth first came to prominence when he co-founded Pearson Paul Haworth Nolan in 1989, an agency which was described as well ahead of its time, even though it went into financial meltdown within eight years.
Haworth then took up the role of creative director at Option One before moving to New Zealand for two years at Saatchi & Saatchi Direct NZ. He returned in 1999 for his first spell at Rapp (then WWAV Rapp Collins) but 18 months later had switched to Tequila as executive creative director.
Within a year he was back at Rapp for a second spell, joining as ECD to succeed George Boyter. Haworth was promoted to UK chairman in 2005 and took on the global role a year later.
It is not known who will succeed him at WPP Team GSK.
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