Lace poached Hopson from his old agency TBWA\London, where he was a board account director. The two had also worked together at Saatchi & Saatchi.
When Hopson was appointed, he came to Grey with no official job title and Lace described him as his "my confidante, my adviser and my Mr Fixit". He was hired ahead of Lace's restructure of the agency, which saw around 50 people made redundant and a host of senior departures.
Hopson, 32, was a former marketing director for English Heritage and was the board account director on Nissan at TBWA from 1998 to 2000 before becoming the head of marketing communications at the Science Museum. He rejoined TBWA from English Heritage in August.
Hopson was among a number of senior appointments made by Lace since he took over Grey in November 2002.
Chief among these have been Bartle Bogle Hegarty's planning and new-business director Nicola Mendelsohn, who joined to head up Grey's new-business drive; planner Dylan Williams replaced Claire Rossi as Grey's planning director; and Fallon's head of account handling, Chris Hirst, became managing director.
On the creative side, Lace has rebuilt his senior team with the hiring of Dave Alberts, the creative chief of Australia's MojoPartners.
Lace's reinvigorated and restructured line-up has been rewarded with a number of new-business wins, including Air Miles, Visa International and Dairy Crest.
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