FutureBrand loses senior director

FutureBrand has axed the role of European chief operating officer Libby Child, it has emerged this week.

The redundancy now leaves FutureBrand Europe without a chief executive or chief operating officer. It follows denials last week by the group’s US head office that any organisational changes were planned in the wake of the appointment of Jean-Louis Dumeu as chairman and chief executive.

A FutureBrand spokeswoman confirms the redundancy. The group is ‘streamlining reporting structures’, she says. All directors now report to Dumeu in the US.

Child had been running the European arm of the group since Charles Trevail’s departure from his chief executive position in July last year (DW 3 July 2003).

Sources close to the group say Child was notified of her redundancy on 1 March, the day Dumeu joined. The decision was reportedly made by the group’s US owner the Interpublic Group without consulting European directors.