John Gutteridge departs Wunderman Thompson

WPP AUNZ has announced a leadership change at Wunderman Thompson Australia, where Lee Leggett will replace CEO John Gutteridge, who departs the agency following a long career.  

Leggett has spent the past four years consulting with agencies including Havas and Publicis, in addition to working with WPP AUNZ’s Hogarth and other company brands on production partnerships, according to the company. Earlier in her career she was CEO of Initiative, CEO of Dare, and managing director of Grand Union, working in both London and Sydney.

Gutteridge served as Asia CEO of JWT and Mirum from 2016 until 2019 when Annette Male was named APAC head of Wunderman Thompson, at which point Gutteridge returned to Australia to take over as CEO of JWT ANZ—a post he had originally taken up in 2010, before ascending to APAC leadership. 

“Once I decided to return to Australia, WPP AUNZ asked me to lead the merger of Wunderman and J Walter Thompson in Australia and New Zealand," Getteridge said in a release. "It’s been a fulfilling experience and thanks to the hard work of the team we’ve got a very strong proposition. But with the two brands now successfully working together and the business heading into its next phase, it was always my intention to hand the business over once the merger was complete."

Gutteridge added that he's moving on to "a new and very different opportunity".