D&AD postpones search for CEO

D&AD has confirmed it will not begin its search for its new chief executive until after its next executive committee is in place in mid-September.

‘We are not working to a deadline [to appoint a chief executive], but would rather wait to appoint when we find the right person,’ says D&AD chief operating officer Dara Lynch. ‘With this sort of post, often the better they are, the longer they can sometimes take to be available.’

The organisation’s former chief executive Michael Hockney left suddenly and unexpectedly in March, after an apparent power struggle inside the organisation.

D&AD chairman Anthony Simonds-Gooding is acting as interim chief executive of the charity until Hockney’s successor is appointed. He has been overseeing its programmes of activity together with the D&AD’s directors.

Lynch adds that moving D&AD forward will be a critical part of the job of the incoming chief executive. ‘We need our new chief executive to have the vision to move D&AD forward and to be the “face” of the organisation: getting out there, meeting people and representing D&AD across the creative industries in the UK and beyond,’ she says.

Last Friday, D&AD closed its on-line ballot for appointments to its new executive. It is checking and counting the votes from its members and is due to announce the results on 15 September, when Poke creative director Simon Waterfall takes over as D&AD president.