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William Eccleshare, the former chairman of Ammirati Puris Lintas,

is to join McKinsey & Co with a brief to set up a branding unit that

will operate across Europe.

He will take up the role of partner in May. Eccleshare said: ’It’s about

recognising the opportunity for better integration of corporate business

strategy with brand strategy.’

He added: ’I have worked in advertising for 21 years, and I look forward

to using the knowledge I have gained in a broader business application.

McKinsey is perfectly placed for that.’

Eccleshare was among the senior redundancies made at APL after the

merger with Lowe Howard-Spink last autumn.

Rupert Howell, the president of the advertising agency body, the IPA,

described Eccleshare as being ’one of the most cerebral people in

advertising’.

Eccleshare joined APL in 1995 as chief executive and was promoted to

chairman following the departure of Andrew Cracknell, now back at Bates

UK, in 1998. The pair had been hired by the network’s chief, Martin

Puris, to manage the merger of KMM and SP Lintas, secure the Unilever

and Rover accounts and add some vim to an agency that had been perceived

as being drab.

However, he oversaw some fraught years at APL, culminating in the loss

of its pounds 40 million Rover business and its subsequent merger with

Lowe Howard-Spink.

Before APL, he was with J. Walter Thompson, which he joined as a

graduate trainee in 1978. From head of account management, he was

promoted to joint deputy managing director in 1990 and then joint

managing director.

Eccleshare’s next move was to become chief executive of JWT’s Amsterdam

office. He returned as worldwide head of strategy at the London office

before securing the APL job in 1995.

His latest appointment illustrates the convergence of strategic tasks

handled by ad agencies and management consultancies.