CLOSE-UP: NEWSMAKER - MALCOLM POYNTON. O&M's creative chief is ruthless man of principle.(Ogilvy & Mather)

O&M needs Poynton to turn its fortunes round quickly, Francesca Newland writes.

Dave Droga is talented, charming, a natural leader and very good at playing office politics. That is why he has succeeded in changing Saatchi & Saatchi's image in London from drab to sharp and getting a massive promotion to head Publicis' creative output on a global basis.

The fact that Droga is Australian is irrelevant. But with a slew of London's creative directorships recently going to Antipodeans, it appears that some headhunters and chief executives attribute Droga's success to his provenance.

The latest such appointment is Malcolm Poynton, who has been hired to fill the long-vacant creative directorship of Ogilvy & Mather. He's a New Zealander and was most recently the executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney.

However, he's not a stranger to these shores, having worked for five years at M&C Saatchi between 1996 and 2001 - latterly as the deputy creative director. Like Grey's new creative director, Dave Alberts, he's a friend of Droga, who jokingly describes him as the quintessential art director: good-looking and immaculately turned out.

When Saatchis' global creative head, Bob Isherwood, persuaded Poynton to take the job in Sydney two years ago, his new agency was in a shambles.

He was given a target of three years to turn it around and he claims to have achieved that goal a year ahead of schedule so feels ready to move back to the UK and take on the challenge waiting for him at O&M.