Leo Burnett Consultancy appoints MD

Leo Burnett Asia Pacific has appointed James Bickford as managing partner of Leo Burnett Consultancy. He will be reporting to Jarek Ziebinski, president, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific and will be leading the APAC markets.He will be tasked to build a growth strategy for Leo Burnett Consultancy and become a regional leader in business to brand consultancy. Leo Burnett Consultancy was created to unleash the purpose of brands and accelerate, grow and create future value for the organisations it partners. The consultancy is part of the Leo Burnett Group."Aligned with Leo Burnett’s philosophy of people-focused communication, Leo Burnett Consultancy’s work will be inspired by the human purpose and will include a curated selection of Leo Burnett’s propriety suite of quantitative and qualitative tools," said the company in a press statement.Bickford (pictured) was most recently in New Zealand where he launched Interbrand and led it. He has over  20 years of business and brand consulting experience on how brands influence cultures, engage customers, shape markets, C-suites and boards on a national and international scale.Ziebinski said: ”We learnt from marketers a key aspect of their communication needs lies in business to brand consultancy and made the strategic decision to realign our focus on developing the structure of a regional consultancy offering. An offering that is in reality, already in practice in a few of our markets across the region including Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Korea.”He added that Leo Burnett Consultancy not only enhances Leo Burnett’s existing capabilities in advertising and marketing but also “brings the unique advantage of bridging the gap between business to brand consultancy and communication strategies to deliver greater value.”Meanwhile just recently, Leo Burnett announced some big changes to its Asia ops, with Eddie Booth, regional chairman and CEO of Greater China retiring from the agency after 15 years. Ziebinski will take over as chairman and CEO for the consolidated operation including China from September.