Kirby will liaise with Diageo's creative agencies on contractual issues such as pay, performance, and best practice. He will also work with brand marketing directors to make decisions on agency appointments.
He will report to Alison Littley, global head of demand procurement, and takes up the job, which has been vacant for several months, in early November.
Kirby was account director on Stella Artois at Lowe Howard-Spink for seven years. He caused a stir in 1999 when he resigned from Bates Dorland, citing the breakdown of trust between clients and agencies as his reason for quitting the advertising industry and slamming clients for not adequately rewarding agencies.
At Bates Dorland Kirby headed the Heinz and Superdrug business for 15 months.
After leaving Bates, he went travelling for a year. He returned to work for Tempus Partners and freelanced for Wieden & Kennedy London.
He was most recently business development director at Adgistics, which operates online advertising management systems.
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