It was announced yesterday that Leo Burnett London has promoted group marketing manager Katie Lee, to the position of managing director. The MD position has been left vacant for the past three years, since Paul Lawson was promoted to chief executive in 2011. Lee has been with Leo Burnett for seven years now and as MD, she will retain her responsibilities within group marketing, and the group's business development and communications. Overall, Lee has more than 15 years of advertising experience with agencies, including CDP (where she started her career, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. She joined Leo Burnett in 2007 as client service director on the company's McDonald's account. Since then she has also led the Home base account and numerous government accounts.
Lee has been with Leo Burnett for seven years now and as MD, she will retain her responsibilities within group marketing
Lawson is more than happy with his (eventual) replacement. Indeed, he believes that she is a “Key appointment” for the agency, and that there “Really is no-one better for the job,” because of the “Focus, drive and discipline” that she has already brought to the group marketing department. He knows Lee (who is also the joint chair of the IPA’s New Business and Marketing Group) will continue to bring these same talents and to the table in her new role as MD. He says she has consistently brought “Drive and discipline to the company's new-business and reputation,” and that her “Can-do attitude and belief in the Leo Burnett brand is absolutely right for her role as managing director.”
Katie Lee (Right) with Paul Lawson (Left)
Lee's time at Leo Burnett has seen her shoot through the ranks with incredible speed. She was promoted to deputy head of account management in 2010, before she was appointed as group marketing director just a year later. Both roles included responsibility for all agency training and graduate recruitment, which means she has significant experience in picking and choosing the right team for the right job, which would be a terrific boon for any MD.
“We've spent the last few years looking at the group from an integrated perspective.” Katie Lee
Lee herself says that she believes the new role will allow her to focus even harder on the Leo Burnet Group's move towards becoming a fully integrated agency. “We've spent the last few years looking at the group from an integrated perspective,” she says, “both in our external offering and internal culture.” She thinks that having an MD back at the agency will allow them to “Bring the focus back to a brand with many deeply talented people behind it."
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK. His curmudgeonly rants and acerbic observations can be followed, scrutinised and spread (like a particularly witty virus) via Twitter.
