Schwall joins Media Square

Media Square has appointed Oliver Schwall, former chief executive of Germany-based ad agency Springer and Jacoby, to the newly created position of chief executive, northern Europe.

The appointment of Schwall completes the senior management group, following the company’s recent investment programme to bring in new senior people to develop and expand the company. This includes the appointment of David Worthington as chairman of the consultancy’s design division earlier this month.

Schwall will be based in Dusseldorf, Germany with responsibility for developing Media Square’s presence across northern Europe, excluding the UK and Ireland.

‘We are very committed to building and strengthening our operations in northern Europe and, in particular, to building on the already very well established base of businesses in Germany,’ says Roger Parry, chairman of Media Square.

The northern European operations will build on Media Square’s businesses in Germany, including advertising and marketing group SEA, advertising agency Hoffman Schalt, public relations consultancy SEA PR and corporate branding consultancy Muth SEA, all of which will now report to Schwall.

In July 2007, Media Square appointed Roger Parry, former chief executive of Clear Channel International, as its executive chairman. In October, Peter Reid from McKinsey & Company was employed as group development director.

Mike Spicer, former chief executive of Arc, was appointed as chairman of the marketing division and David Worthington, from Conran Design Group, was snapped up as chairman of the design division in November.

Worthington was confirmed as chairman as part of a restructuring of the marketing group, which divides the business into three divisions: design, advertising and PR and marketing.

He will oversee Media Square’s design brands, which comprise: Lloyd Northover, Holmes & Marchant, Symmetry and Fourninety in the UK and Su Yeang in Singapore. He will also oversee CRC, which will work together with point-of-sale specialist Arken as Coutts Group.

Schwall joined Springer and Jacoby in 1999 as client services director and was made managing director and executive director, before being promoted to chief executive in 2005.