GREENWOOD SET TO DEPART CLEMENGER BBDO, MELBOURNE

Tony Greenwood, who was appointed a group creative director at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne only five months back, has decided to leave to start a new, as yet unnamed venture with other partners. He says he is still consulting to Clems on various ongoing projects and will remain on and off at the agency until the arrival of incoming ECD James McGrath in early February. Greenwood, who made his creative rep at Clems in the 90s (co creator of the Legendary Milkman campaign) was lured back to the agency in July last year by former Clems Melbourne chairman Ron Mather. But once McGrath accepted the ECD role, Mather soon left and many in the industry expected that Greenwood would follow, echoes of the situation following the merger of Y&R and Patts in mid 2005. Greenwood was then the CD of Y&R Melbourne, McGrath CD of Patts Melbourne. The latter was appointed ECD of the merged entity, and soon after Greenwood left.
In last year's shakeup, Clems hired Greenwood to be one of three group creative directors in a complete restructure of the agency. The agency's CD at that time, Emma Hill, also became a group CD, and the agency was in hire mode for the other Group CD position, which eventually did not happen once James McGrath was signed to the ECD role from George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne.
The CD position at Clems Melbourne has been in a state of flux in recent years, compared to the stability of the eighties and nineties. Hill had been in the role for two and a half years since the departure of her predecessor Mike O'Sullivan, who came in from the ECD gig at Colenso BBDO Auckland. He only lasted only nine months in the gig before taking up his present ECD role at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ. Before O'Sullivan, the role was filled by Ant Shannon for five years and before that, David Blackley ran the show for nearly two decades. For many industry watchers, the nineties was when the agency ruled the roost creatively in Melbourne (Clems was CB Agency of the Year in 1996 and 1999), but there are great expectations for a creative revival this year once McGrath makes his mark.