- Angus Fear, the former head of J. Walter Thompson's prestigious Nestle Rowntree account, has joined fellow Nestle agency, Roose & Partners, as one of its six managing partners.
Fear, who ran Nestle for six years, had been due to head up the confectioner's US business for J WT in San Francisco, but the deal fell through, leading to what he calls an "amicable parting" with the network.
Fear will be the second new managing partner to join the agency in recent months, his appointment follows the appointment last year of Ed Wall from Leo Burnett. Ted Roose, chairman of Roose, said the expansion of the management team was in response to the rapid growth at the agency, which increased its billings by 15 per cent in 1997 (ACN MEAL).
The signing of Fear is bound to cause ripples at JWT as it may signal a more aggressive attitude by Roose towards Nestle Rowntree business.
Fear has built up experience as a packaged goods, retail and drinks account handler during his 24 years in some of London's most respected advertising agencies.
After a year as a graduate trainee at Leo Burnett, he moved to Masius Wynn Williams in 1977. After a short stint at Saatchi & Saatchi, Fear returned to the agency, by then known as D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, and went on, to become the agency's youngest board account director by the age of 29 in 1982.
He stayed a total of eight years at DMB&B, working on the Allied Breweries business for five of these, until, in 1985, Fear joined the account team of Abbott Mead Vickers at a time when AMV was a fast-growing, modest-sized agency of some 100 people. It is a return to this smaller environment that attracted Fear to Roose, which he joins on 1 June. "It's faster and fresher than a larger agency," he said. "I won't have to be looking at client conflict all the time."
After five years at Abbott Mead Vickers, Fear moved to Allen Brady & Marsh, and a year later became one of only 12 staff folded into Lowe Howard-Spink when the agencies merged.
In 1992, Fear was poached by JWT, where he became director in charge of a group of accounts which included Nestle.
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