Rapp executive creative director Jason Andrews has finally joined the agency’s top-level exodus following months of speculation about his future, fuelled by the appointment of Kitcatt Nohr ECD Ben Golik to the same role late last year.
At the time, Rapp chiefs insisted the duo would work side by side with UK president Sophie Daranyi saying Golik was joining the senior team to help build the business “moving forward”.
It was also suggested that Golik would take over some of global chief creative officer Ian Haworth’s role; he quit to join Wunderman in September 2014, after 14 years at the agency.
However, sources claim Andrews’ departure had been on the cards as soon as Golik had signed his contract.
His exit means that, as well as Haworth, managing director John Perkins, chief client officer Sam Nolan, and managing director of media Ian Maynard have all left the agency since global chief executive Alexei Orlov joined in June 2014.
Orlov has since been accused of discrimination, retaliation and wrongful dismissal in a lawsuit in the US, brought by former agency president Greg Andersen. There have been suggestions that this culture also stretched to the UK business, although the Omnicom agency has strenuously denied there has been any wrongdoing anywhere in its network.
Andrews joined Rapp as ECD in 2012, and was promoted in 2014 to head up its entire UK creative output – including data, technology and media – after chief creative officer Rik Haslam was handed a top US role.
He has worked in the industry for nearly 30 years, in the UK, US and Australia, and is a well-known figure on awards judging panels, having picked up gongs at D&AD, Creative Circle, the DMA, Campaign Direct and John Caples.
Andrews joined Rapp from Geronimo, where he had been for just over 2 years, having previously worked at tech start-up eMortal. Prior to that he was one of the co-founders of Personal but quit the business before it merged and was subsequently subsumed into Partners Andrews Aldridge.
He has also had spells at FCB Sydney and Proximity, and was head of copy and co-founder of Basten Greenhill Andrews.
Neither Andrews nor anyone from Rapp was available for comment for DecisionMarketing.
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