Stockholm/Amsterdam, 13 June 2008
LBI International AB ("LBi"), the global marketing and technology agency, announces that Chris Clarke, Executive Creative Director and President of Digitas' London, is to join LBi as Chief Creative Officer. The creation of this board level role is part of a strategic strengthening of LBi's global creative capability. Clarke will focus initially on the LBi agency brand and on bringing focus to the UK creative product, before invigorating LBi's creative proposition across the network. Chris Clarke Comments: "It has taken a lot to wrench me from Digitas. But LBi is unique in its vision for the digital future. It has the financial foundations and management team to support genuine creative innovation, and deliver great creative work on a global basis. I'm very proud of what I achieved heading up Digitas UK. But now is the time for me to concentrate on what I do best: the creative work. LBi has great accounts, great talent, and incredible heritage: Icon MediaLab, Lost Boys, Framfab, Oyster and Wheel. These businesses were part of the core DNA of the digital agency business. It's an immense honour to join at a time when they are being fused into such an exciting agency brand."
Chris has been at the forefront of the UK digital industry since the late 90s. He was a founding member of digital pioneers Abel & Baker, later becoming Executive Creative Director of Wheel. In 2006 Chris joined Digitas-owned Modem Media as Executive Creative Director for Europe, where, after the acquisition of Digitas by Publicis, he took the helm of the London agency as ECD & President.
Ewen Sturgeon, the founder of Wheel, is the CEO of LBi UK and a member of the LBi Group management team. He comments:
"I worked with Chris at Wheel for 4 years. He's unusual in that he combines the creative maturity that is tough to find in the digital industry with a natural flair and instinct for creating broad, deep and innovative brand experiences. He also has an intuitive understanding for what we are trying to create at LBi and his arrival marks a point of evolution for the business. We've put the building blocks in place, we've got a great creative team in the UK, and across the group, that just needs a bit of leadership and clarity of vision to really fly." For further information please contact:
Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, LBi UK
+44 20 7063 6465,
ewen.sturgeon@lbi.com Eva Ottosson, Group Communications Manager, LBI International AB
+46 709 41 21 40,
eva.ottosson@lbi.com
About LBi: LBi is a global marketing and technology agency. The Company employs approximately 1,500 professionals located primarily in the major European, American and Asian business centers, such as Amsterdam, Atlanta, Berlin, Brussels, London, Milan, Mumbai, New York, Paris and Stockholm. LBi blends the full range of service disciplines to create innovative multichannel solutions for national and international corporate clients. By combining business and media strategy development with creative design, industry expertise and the latest digital communications technology, LBi offers a unique , and uniquely valuable proposition. LBi is listed on OMX Nordic in Stockholm and Euronext in Amsterdam as (symbol: LBI).