N&S is plotting to launch the US version of OK! this autumn and Bowley is working in a senior capacity with a brief to bring in advertisers.
Bowley has worked with Richard Desmond's N&S before, launching Jackpot TV, a gaming channel on the Sky and ntl platforms.
It is understood that Bowley is working on an open-ended consultancy basis, but the move leaves the future of Amplified, a communications agency set up by Bowley with financial backing from Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, in some doubt.
Jeremy Miles, the chairman of MCBD, said: "We were surprised by the news he'd taken this job. We wish him the very best of British luck. We are in negotiation with him regarding Amplified and where we go from here."
Bowley launched Amplified in September 2004, nine months after leaving Carlton following its merger with Granada. The business is majority-owned by Bowley and launched with eight staff and shared office space with MCBD, which took a 30 per cent share. Amplified subsequently moved out of the Rathbone Place offices of MCBD into N&S's Lower Thames Street offices.
Amplified had some early successes, including winning a project from the Royal College of Nursing to create an event around the Nurse of the Year awards, and a partnership with Beam TV to launch an in-store TV service. Amplified Captive TV Networks relied on Beam TV's technology, with Amplified providing and managing the content.
Desmond poached back the editor of Wenner Media's US Magazine, Nic McCarthy, a former editor of OK!. However, this was halted by Wenner claiming of breach of contract and OK! has had to make alternative plans. Sarah Ivens, the deputy editor of OK! is working as a consultant editor in New York.
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