David Abraham, one of the founders of St Luke's and an architect of
its 'co-operative' ethos, is quitting the agency.
He is to join Discovery Networks Europe as the general manager with a
brief to build its bank of regular viewers.
But Abraham, 37, who will quit as chief operating officer next month,
denied his departure was connected with recent events at St Luke's,
which has lost its BSkyB and HSBC accounts worth a total of pounds 50
million.
'The new BT work will be very exciting and the agency remains at a high
energy level,' Abraham said. 'It's just that I wanted to experience
things beyond advertising and I felt that, if I was going to do it, it
should be sooner rather than later.'
Abraham's appointment reflects an increasing interest by TV companies in
recruiting senior agency executives to boost their marketing potency and
competitiveness.
He will go in immediately above Peter Weil, Discovery's director of
programmes, and will report to the managing director, Joyce Taylor.
An Oxford graduate, Abraham began his agency career at the then Benton &
Bowles in 1984. He met Andy Law, who takes an expanded role as the
chairman and chief executive of St Luke's, when they both worked at
CDP.
They were involved in the early days of Chiat Day in London and were key
figures in the agency's buy-out from Omnicom to create St Luke's in
1995.
Law said: 'You can't fault David for wanting to make a career switch.
Good luck to him.'
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