Sam Hawkey has been appointed as the new CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London. Hawkey takes on his new role today (7/1) as the agency opens the doors of its Chancery Lane headquarters. The office re-opens for a limited number of employees, with a booking system and social distancing measures in place, for the first time since the start of pandemic lockdown. The decision to promote Hawkey was made before the coronavirus crisis.
Over the past five years, Hawkey has played a pivotal role in Saatchi & Saatchi London’s growth, latterly as COO, a role he took up in April 2018 after being promoted from managing director. As COO, Hawkey has increased the agency’s investment in new creative talent with strategic appointments, which include bringing in a new head of design in Kerry Roper, hiring Dan Treichel as executive creative director and Rodrigo Castellari as creative director.
Hawkey joined the agency in 2012. His clients have included BT, EE, Betway, Guinness and Visa. Before joining Saatchi & Saatchi London, Hawkey was at Glue Isobar. He started his career in e-commerce, digital builds and CRM at Dial Media Group.
Hawkey said: “The thing I’ve loved about Saatchi & Saatchi is always being given the freedom to fundamentally challenge and change what has gone before. Nothing is off limits. The idea of being the person to take on that mantle and become its guardian in our 50th year makes me immensely proud. As we head into a future of uncertainty, change and opportunity it feels reassuring to know that the one thing we will all need more than ever is a belief that ‘Nothing is Impossible.’”
Hawkey will report into his predecessor, Magnus Djaba, who has been CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi London for eight years, alongside his role as global president, Saatchi & Saatchi, and CEO of the creative practice for Publicis Groupe UK. As well as Saatchi & Saatchi, the creative practice at Publicis Groupe UK encompasses Leo Burnett, Publicis.Poke, PGOne and Turner Duckworth.
Djaba said: “In two months, this iconic agency celebrates its 50th birthday. We wanted to continue the legacy of Saatchi & Saatchi and our ‘Nothing is Impossible’ mantra, and make sure we have the same breed of entrepreneurial audacious leadership now as we did 50 years ago. When I became CEO eight years ago, Sam was my first hire. There are two things that have remained constants during my time as CEO–one is the agency mantra that ‘Nothing is Impossible’ and the other is my belief that Sam was born to lead this agency. The industry needs creative entrepreneurs now more than ever, and Sam is one of them.”
The rest of the Saatchi & Saatchi London leadership line-up is unchanged with Richard Huntington as chairman and chief strategy officer, Guillermo Vega as chief creative officer and Sarah Jenkins as managing director.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More