George Patterson Y&R Melbourne appoints Mike Hyde in head of strategy role replacing Tom Ward

GPY&R Melbourne has appointed Mike Hyde (left) as head of strategy and planning, who replaces Tom Ward, who is new MD at Naked, after 3 years with the agency.

Hyde’s highly awarded career spans creative advertising and media, with the past year spent at Carat as head of business strategy. Prior to his appointment at Carat, he spent several years as senior strategy planner at Clemenger BBDO.

Says Steve Doherty, Y&R Group managing director: “We’re delighted to welcome Mike on board. His experience and credentials are unrivalled with extensive brand and media planning skills. In his role, Mike will provide our clients and staff with continued leadership and direction in the strategy and planning space – he’ll be a great asset to our management team.

“I’d like to thank Tom, who has done an outstanding job partnering our agency team & clients. As a pommy group account director come strategy planner he had aspirations to lead and manage an agency. That opportunity has arrived and Tom has decided to leave us, accepting an MD role. I wish him the utmost success in the future.”

Says Hyde: “Patts is a modern agency doing outstanding work across a range of great clients and its creative reputation speaks for itself. Underpinning this is a culture of effectiveness and insight, to which planning plays a crucial role. I’m looking forward to being part of the team and contributing to its future success.”