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PHD Group has abandoned its search for a chief executive and has installed Philippa Brown, the acting chief executive, in the job full time.

Brown will combine her duties as the chief executive of Omnicom Media Group UK with the PHD role.

The agency began the search in January following the departure of Morag Blazey and approached a number of agency and media owner candidates. Mike Cooper, the chief executive of PHD Worldwide, said: "We did find some good candidates, but this coincided with our most successful period so we questioned what we were doing."

PHD, which has had a run of new-business wins, including Cadbury, AA/Saga and the British Heart Foundation, has also handed an expanded group role to Daren Rubins, the managing director of PHD London. He will also take on responsibility for PHD North and PHD Group trading. PHD Rocket will continue to report to Brown.

Adam Turner, the agency's broadcast director, has been promoted to the head of investment across the group and becomes the agency's fourth managing partner. Andy Spray will replace Turner in the broadcast director role.

Hugh Cameron, PHD's recently appointed chief strategy officer, will start at the agency next week after resigning from Freud Communications. PHD is also planning to hire three new directors to report to the managing partners Lindsay Weedon, Howard Nead and Luca Margarito.

Brown said: "PHD Group is in a great place right now. We have a gold-standard management team, the lowest staff turnover we've seen for years, great client retention and superb new-business success this year too."