Wagstaffs loses two senior staff

WagsTaffs managing director Clare Anderson has left the group in the same week that the consultancy’s design director, Brian Green, departed, along with two designers. A project manager is due to leave next week. It is not known how or if Anderson or Green will be replaced.

Anderson, a former communications director of the Design Business Association, joined Wagstaffs last year from Lambie-Nairn, where she was on a four-month contract (DW 12 June 1998).

She had previously been employed as head of planning at both Pearlfisher and Design Bridge.

“It takes time for anyone to see how they fit into a new company, and it became obvious to me over time that we had different visions. It was a difficult decision to resign, but it is important to me as managing director that I should have my own vision for the company,” says Anderson.

Anderson will not be looking to return to work immediately, but is considering her options and spending time with her young daughter.

Wagstaffs chairman Steve Puxley puts Anderson’s departure down to “differences of opinion about the direction of the business”.

Puxley is guarded about future plans for Wagstaffs and how Green and Anderson’s roles will be filled.

“I don’t know if they are going to be replaced directly,” he says.

Green, who left on Friday, had just completed a six-month notice period after resigning this spring.

He and his wife Judi Green, still Wagstaffs’ creative director, joined the consultancy in 1997 when it bought their group The Green House (DW 4 July 1997).

Green is now working freelance as an art director for fashion and print, and intends to set up his own studio with photographer Paul Bevitt in the near future.

Of the other departing staff, designers Scott Pryor and Pippa Woolley are heading to Design Bridge and Ziggurat respectively. Project manager Jo Shea will leave on 12 November for Landor Associates.