D&AD makes 12 job cuts as recession bite

D&AD has cut 12 jobs, a decision the organisation has put down to the economic downturn.

Eight people, including two senior managers, are being laid off across D&AD’s operations, and four long-term vacancies will not be filled.

Finance director Dara Lynch says the ‘restructuring’ was under discussion before Tim O’Kennedy joined as chief executive on 3 August, but that he was party to the decision ratified by the executive committee.

She says the ‘future-facing’ move ‘will get D&AD into a more sustainable place’.

D&AD chairman Anthony Simonds-Gooding says the cuts, amounting to a third of the organisation’s staff, follow a 22 per cent drop in D&AD Awards entries in 2009.

He says, ‘It looks like we’ll be feeling the effects for at least the next year, along with the rest of the industry. A large proportion of our income is derived from entries to the awards, and even the most optimistic projection includes a further drop in entries in 2010.

‘We have spent the past six months reviewing the numbers and planning for the next year, and have decided that a reduction in headcount is the most regrettable, but the most secure, course of action for the long-term welfare of the organisation.’

Other cost-cutting measures being put into place to meet the executive committee’s strategic plan include a reduction in the number of President’s Lectures to four or five a year