Langdon takes over the post of regional director of McCann-Erickson EMEA from the agency veteran Don Dillon, who retires from the post at the age of 56, and breaks a sequence of three Americans who have filled McCann's top European position.
His appointment will end reports linking Langdon with jobs outside McCann and will trigger a hunt for successors to head both McCann's London and UK group operations and the role of European regional director for Universal McCann that Langdon has occupied since January.
Langdon said: "We are building off a strong base but we can aim to become qualitatively better as well as quantitively. This will be important in the difficult year we envision. We need to invest in the things that will ensure our success when we come out of recession."
Langdon will control McCann-Erickson and Universal McCann directly, and will also chair a regional board including McCann Worldgroup "corridor companies", such as MRM, Momentum and Futurebrand.
The appointment was announced in New York today by McCann Worldgroup's chairman and chief executive, Jim Heekin. "I see several challenges," he said. "There's pushing the quality bar higher and continuing to integrate other disciplines, and the task of keeping costs in line with shrinking revenues while trying to increase revenue. Leaders who do both will thrive."
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