John Mathers replaces Jon Davies as Holmes & Marchant MD

Davies, who is leaving the group after 14 years ‘to pursue new business interests’, will hand over to Mathers on 2 November.

Media Square is in the process of carrying out plans to converge its design groups. ‘

My experience at WPP during my Brand Union days should be useful in getting the design teams at Media Square to work together more cohesively,’ says Mathers.

He reports that he will be ‘working closely’ with stablemate Lloyd Northover Group’s chairman David Worthington, and with Media Square’s two other design-led groups, Arken and Four Ninety.

Mathers arrives at the group after an 18-month spell as chief operating officer at Blue Marlin Brand Design.

Media Square recently decided to scrap its divisional structure (DW 3 June), which could allow its four design groups to unite under a single brand.

Worthington, who was previously chairman of Media Square’s design division, admitted to Design Week in June that it had ‘always’ been his intention to ‘get all the businesses under one umbrella’ (DW 3 June).

However, Worthington has since backtracked, and when discussing Mathers’ appointment he says, ‘The plan is merely to make sure that Lloyd Northover and Holmes & Marchant work more closely and better together, but not necessarily to end up with a single umbrella name.’

Nevertheless, Worthington reports that he now has monthly meetings with all the chief executives of the design groups, while ‘prior to this point they always worked very independently’.

During the summer, Lloyd Northover moved out of its London office, sending its brand experience department to Marlow to share office space with the 30-strong team at Holmes & Marchant (DW 3 June).

Two months later, in August, Holmes & Marchant made planning director Emma Atkinson redundant.

Mathers says that there are ‘no plans’ to make any further redundancies at Holmes & Marchant

JOHN MATHERS’ RECENT MOVES:
January 2008 – John Mathers leaves The Brand Union as UK chief executive after ten years
April 2008 – Mathers joins Blue Marlin Brand Design
September 2009 – Mathers leaves Blue Marlin as chief operating officer after just 18 months at the consultancy
October 2009 – Mathers joins packaging design group Holmes & Marchant as managing director