'Prem's resignation natural order of things': Lowe's Gatfield

In a move that had for long been expected, Lowe Worldwide has announced that Prem Mehta, chairman and MD, Lintas India has resigned. Speaking on conference call, Steve Gatfield, CEO, Lowe Worldwide (pictured) said, “When Interpublic were in discussion with the Lintas Trustees and Prem with regard to the purchase of remaining equity in the group, Prem was very candid about his desire to not stay a long time beyond the closure of the deal. We felt that after the deal had been consummated, and the organization had been reconfigured with new management, it was the natural order of things.”

Gatfield said that the only change the development would entail would be of him taking over the chairmanship of the Lintas board. Gatfield denied that the move was a fallout of last year’s controversial payout issue. In July last year, Lowe Lintas had announced that it would be paying back employees the money received from the sale of the trusts’ shares to the Interpublic Group. This had led to a number of senior and middle level creatives protesting about being left out, on the basis of the fact that they were on contract and not employees, inspite of having worked with the company for years. This had led to a public war of words between Lowe’s then national creative director R Balakrishnan (who has since become chairman and chief creative officer, Lowe India) and Mehta, with the latter sticking to the stand that the payout had been fair.  At the time, Gatfield had gone on record to admit that the creatives had been unfairly treated but had promised that they would be compensated. Since then, rumours had mounted about Mehta’s imminent departure from the agency.