Les Timar Steps Down as Clemenger Group CEO

Clemenger Group CEO Les Timar will step down from his role end of June after 27 years at the Group.

He announced his exit hours after Stephen de Wolf was revealed as Clemenger BBDO's incoming CCO, two days after news broke of Omnicom's intentions to buy out Clemenger Group, two weeks after chair Robert Morgan signalled his retirement, and four months after Clemenger's merger with CHEP Network and Traffik.

Chief operating and financial officer, Adrian Ciabotti, will lead Clemenger Group and support its agencies on an interim basis, with BBDO Worldwide to make further announcements in due course.

Les assumed the role at the start of 2022, taking over from Robert, who had held the CEO role for 23 years. Les had previously spent more than two decades at Clemenger Group-owned public affairs communications firm GRACosway; he was one of the founders of GRA, leading the business through its merger with Cosway.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of this truly extraordinary, storied and diverse company,” Les said.

“I have had the opportunity of working with so many talented people who have brought their innovative thinking and boundless energy to our clients’ most important business problems.

“I’d like to particularly thank Robert Morgan, Peter Clemenger and Hylton Mackley for their belief in me and their respective contributions over many decades to Clemenger Group.” 

Robert Morgan, outgoing chairman of Clemenger Group said, “It has been my privilege to work with Les Timar for the past 27 years. He is an outstanding leader and has done a brilliant job as CEO of Clemenger Group over the past four years. He also co-founded and led GRACosway for many years and made it into a market leader. An all-time great Clemenger person!”

This week, The Australian reported Omnicom is looking to fully buy out Clemenger Group, taking over the 13.16% of shares currently spread out between approximately 350 employees. BBDO Worldwide currently owns a majority stake of 86.84%.

Clemenger has operated a staff share scheme since 1973, giving all Australian and New Zealand employees of companies within the Group the ability to apply for shares. Omnicom’s BBDO Worldwide purchased a 35% stake in the Clemenger agency in 1972, and increased its share to 74% in 2011.

The proposed deal will be taken to a vote on June 30th (the day Robert's retirement takes effect), and if successful, will give Omnicom full ownership. 

Globally, Omnicom Advertising Group CEO Troy Ruhanen is set to announce a local leader for the group, which includes TBWA, DDB, and BBDO agencies Clemenger and Colenso, while Omnicom’s proposed acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG) is set to be finalised in the second half of the year.

When BBDO global CEO Nancy Reyes revealed the Clemenger merger in an exclusive interview with LBB, she said strengthening the proposition by uniting creative, media, data, tech, and activation is a way to remedy the fact "we've got this magic, but it's not operating to its fullest potential."

“We've got to get back to a place where we put our arms around this business. We're not insecure about the business that we're in, we're proud of it," she said, mirroring the spirit of BBDO's new global positioning, 'Do Big Things'.

"And when we think about applying all this thinking much more upstream, then that opens up the opportunity to say, 'Okay, we've actually got these capabilities inside the Clemenger Group, but maybe the best way to take advantage of them is to put them together.' Because try as we might, it's very hard to operate when they're separate and distinct.”

At the time, Les said, “Through its creative beating heart and breadth of expertise, the new Clemenger combines bold thinking with precision execution to turn ambitious growth aspirations into reality for our clients.

“We are embracing strength and scale to create a truly game-changing agency that perfectly balances our integrated capabilities across performance, marketing and brand platform creativity.

"This is not about doing more with less. This is all about doing more with more.”