GREY Grey Global Grp. (MM)

Tim Mellors Joins Grey as President, Chief Creative Officer of Grey Worldwide North America NEW YORK, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Tim Mellors has joined Grey as President and Chief Creative Officer of Grey Worldwide North America. The announcement was made today by Steve Blamer, Chief Executive Officer of Grey Worldwide North America. Mr. Mellors's position is a first for Grey Worldwide North America, and the renewed partnership of Steve Blamer and Tim Mellors will report jointly to Ed Meyer, Chairman, President & CEO of Grey Global Group (NASDAQ:GREY). Tim will be on premises beginning sometime in August. In making the announcement Steve Blamer offered, "Tim is more than a world-class creative talent - he is an award winning creative leader who is unique to our industry in having been a director, journalist, talk show host, painter and academician. As I've publicly stated, finding a creative partner has been the single most important objective I have had since arriving from London. It also is a very personal decision into which I have put a great deal of thought and effort. I have spoken to many candidates whom I kept evaluating against the four criteria Grey Worldwide needs most: 1. Creative talent, energy and reputation, 2. Proven new business leadership, 3. Managerial experience suited to our large organization, and 4. Genuine partnership, with trust and friendship at its core. Needless to say, Tim Mellors meets and exceeds all those qualities," continued Mr. Blamer. During their partnership at Grey Worldwide London (1998 - 2000) the team of Blamer and Mellors reversed the fortunes of the Grey UK office and in April of 2000 were cited by Campaign "for holding the #1 slot in Campaign's new- business league after a shower of new-business wins." Mr. Blamer said, "Quite frankly, Tim is my gold standard and was my first choice when I arrived in New York but it simply wasn't possible at that time for both of us to leave our London operation simultaneously. Over the last several months, as I talked to candidates, I kept asking myself, 'does this person fulfill our criteria as well as Tim' and the answer was always 'no.' I got tired of asking myself that question and so I asked Tim if the time was finally right for him to come to New York. After a few dinners and a couple of breakfasts and many, many telephone conversations between New York and London, Tim said 'yes,' and I got my wish, a little late but I still got it," concluded Mr. Blamer. Contributing to the announcement, Ed Meyer, Chairman, President & CEO of Grey Global Group commented, "I know Tim Mellors well. He's an inspired creative leader. He did great work for us in London. He has the talent, the phosphorescence, and the vision to take us where we need to go. There's nothing I like more than success, and the partnership of Blamer and Mellors already has a proven track record." In his advertising career, Tim Mellors has won a Gold at every major European, American, African and Australian award show, including five D&AD pencils, three Cannes gold lions and four Clios. His awards rank him among the great creative leaders of the last couple of decades. -- His early award-winning work includes one of the most memorable British Airways campaigns (it was Tim who visualized "more comfort" as seats that floated to the music of the opera "Lakme"). -- His famous "Tick" campaign for Sure Deodorant has endured for twenty-three years. -- He teamed up with Charles Saatchi to launch a British newspaper, The Independent. -- His advertising for The Conservative Party was award winning (and election- winning), and fundamentally changed the way political advertising was viewed in the UK. Mr. Mellors left Grey Worldwide UK, where he was Chairman & Executive Creative Director, in July 2003 for a year's planned sabbatical in which he co-hosted the second 25 episodes of the popular BBC television game show Double Cross with fellow psychologist Linda Papadopolous from Big Brother. During that time he also completed his post-graduate qualification as a psychotherapist, and received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Derby. Prior to joining Grey UK, Tim had his own agency, Mellors Reay, which he began in 1994 and in 1998 merged with Grey Worldwide UK. Before that, from 1990 to 1994, Tim was with GGT. From 1987 to 1990 he was with Publicis and from 1982 to 1987, Tim was with Saatchi & Saatchi. Other prior agencies include Dorlands, FCB London, DDB and Lintas. Additionally, Tim was a creative director and commercial director at two small agencies in Australia from which he formed Tim Mellors Film Company, which was later based in London. Mr. Mellors began his career writing for fashion magazines such as Town and Nova. Mr. Mellors, age 57, and his wife Lucy have four children. Grey Worldwide North America is part of the Grey Worldwide global network, which is among the world's largest agency networks and is a wholly owned partner company of Grey Global Group, the third largest US-based marketing communications holding company. DATASOURCE: Grey Global Group Inc. CONTACT: Jan A. Sneed, +1-212-546-2422, or cell, +1-917-543-4125, for Grey Global Group Inc. Web site: http://www.grey.com/

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