WORLD: ANALYSIS- France's creative stars play a game of 'chaises musicales'.

Pascal Gregoire returns to the outfit that gave him his first ad job.

Improbable though it seems, a former economics teacher has been hired to run one of the most admired ad agencies in France. Pascal Gregoire has already spent five years at the helm of Leagas Delaney Paris Centre. Now he becomes the president of CLM/BBDO, which was the launch-pad for his career and which he describes as 'a temple of creativity'.

The move is part of a little game of chaises musicales: the flamboyant Christophe Lambert (not the star of Highlander fame) leaves CLM to take over Publicis Conseil, following Jean-Yves Naouri's promotion to European regional chief of the Publicis network earlier this year.

'I would not have left for any other agency,' Gregoire claims. 'CLM gave me my first real job, if you don't count teaching. They could see how passionate I was. I'd been interested in advertising since my teenage years, but by the time I arrived at CLM, the bug had become a virus.'

Gregoire, 41, started out on the account side, but quickly grew envious of the creatives 'who seemed to be able to play with ideas without having to worry about client meetings'. With the support of Pascal Manry, the agency's star copywriter, he was able to switch sides and became an art director. He later left to co-found GBHR, a Euro RSCG spin-off.

'I have always had a somewhat split personality, being both an entrepreneur and a creative,' he explains. 'There are not enough creatives running agencies in France. I find this strange, because creativity is our sole raison d'etre.'

Gregoire believes it was his dual personality that inspired Tim Delaney to create Leagas Delaney's Paris office in 1999. Initially, the agency was built around the Adidas account (which it lost to 180 and TBWA following a global consolidation in January 2002) and had just five staff. Now it employs 45 and has a strong reputation, enhanced by its heavily awarded 'Tidy up' campaign for Ikea.