Steve Mattey, the co-founder of insight consultancy Tree and chief operating officer at VCCP Me, has stepped down from the Chime-owned business to pursue new opportunities.
A highly respected data professional, Mattey started his career client side at HSBC as direct marketing manager in 1986, taking on his first agency job in 1993 at City Financial Marketing.
He then had spells at Wunderman and Black Cat before launching Tree in June 2001 with Matthew Bayfield, initially as a joint venture with AIS London.
The agency was bought out of AIS by marketing group Cagney in 2008, then spearheaded by former adman Paul Simons. When Simons was ousted in the same year, Mattey took over as chief executive of Cagney (now Cubo Communications Group), which by then was on the brink of insolvency.
While Mayfield carried on the day-to-day running of Tree, Mattey set about restructuring Cagney, turning it from loss into profit.
Tree was then bought by Chime in January 2010 in a £2m deal which saw the business form a strategic partnership with VCCP Me in. Bayfield quit in 2013 to join OgilvyOne.
Mattey remained chief executive of Tree, which also has its own client base, including Telefonica O2, VW Group, Virgin, Channel 4, Hiscox, Barnardo’s, BMW, Lever Faberge and Fortnum & Mason.
However, he also took on the role of COO of VCCP Me, steadying the ship following the departure of its three founders, Ben Stephens, Chris Whitson and Neil Francis, who had launched the agency as Stephens Francis Whitson in 2005.
Mattey told DecisionMarketing: “I co-founded Tree 15 years ago, and have been on a fantastic journey with the business since then. I feel it is now time to look for new challenges in one of the most exciting markets for data there has ever been.”
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