CORDIANT HAS NEW CEO
By Adnews Staff
Cordiant has named Robert Seelert as CEO of the advertising company. He replaces Charles Scott who has served as CEO since 1993. Scott has been acting chairman since company founder Maurice Saatchi was ousted late last year in a shareholder revolt. Scott will remain as chairman of Cordiant, parent firm to Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide and Bates Worldwide. Seelert spent 23 years with General Foods serving in various positions including president and CEO of the worldwide coffee and international foods business. He says his experience as a client, spending $2 billion a year for over 60 brands with seven different agencies, will give him a useful perspective working on the agency side. He left General Foods in 1989 to become president and CEO of Topco Associates, a cooperative that supplies private-label products to over 30 regional supermarkets. He left to take on the same position at Kayser Roth Corporation, which markets pantyhose such as No Nonsense and Burlington. Last month he led an investor group in an unsuccessful attempt to buy the coffee and Tetley tea businesses from Allied Domecq. Cordiant changed its name earlier this year from the Saatchi & Saatchi Company when both founding partners left the company.