The McGann Eight.(McCann Erickson-London)

Rupert Howell has hired his dream team to lead McCann Erickson London back to the top. But are they hungry enough, Claire Billings asks.

Transforming the giant that is McCann Erickson London is a task from which most would shy away. Not Rupert Howell, who in the past 12 months has assembled a dream team of some of adland's most highly regarded talent as the first step in rebuilding one of the UK's biggest agencies.

It is a striking, eight-strong line-up and in terms of its scale and personality, it is about as uncharacteristic of a McCann management team as it gets. The fame of the assembled talent suggests that Howell has a salary budget able to trump even that of Garry Lace when he was given the job of turning Grey around.

Howell's first step was to sign long-time colleague and friend Robin Price, the finance expert who helped him found Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury in 1987. This hiring was followed with the appointment of Robert Campbell as the executive creative director.

On the creative side, Campbell has lured Frank Lieberman as his executive head of TV and Mark Reddy as the executive head of art, two highly acclaimed veterans with the kind of experience needed to turn around the agency's print and TV output.

The appointments of Damian O'Malley as the executive head of planning, Stephen Whyte as the chief executive and Christian Hinchcliffe as the marketing director complete the line-up.

Howell asserts: 'If an agency has got great talent then clients respond to it and they encourage you, allow you and almost cajole you to do better work. If you have these three things and manage your process properly, you make money. Money is the result, not the purpose.'