Close-Up: Live Issue - 'Frank has no interest in recreating the past'.

Paul Hammersley tells John Tylee his start-up is not just Sir Frank Lowe's business, and vows it will look forward, not back.

Paul Hammersley has been left holding a large baby. It's a bouncing infant agency whose birth announcement was remarkable as much for its brevity as for its timing.

What's more, Tesco saw the agency secure third spot in Campaign's new-business rankings at the end of last year without either being properly christened or finding a home.

Last week, with Sir Frank Lowe, whose brainchild the agency is, playing the role of absent father - and with major hirings yet to commit themselves - it fell to Hammersley, 43, to be its public face.

For him, it is a period of mixed and conflicting emotions. He acknowledges some guilt about quitting as the chief executive of DDB London after a ten-month spell in which significant progress was made in restoring the agency's fortunes, leaving work remaining to be done. To make matters worse for DDB, the agency's chief strategic officer, David Hackworthy, was dithering over whether or not to jump ship with his erstwhile boss as Campaign went to press.

Hammersley also confesses concern about the impact on the Lowe London staff (although little for the agency itself) of him grabbing its pounds 50 million flagship Tesco account. This impact will be compounded if Hammersley also manages to take the highly decorated creative director Ed Morris, who at the time of going to press was still considering his options.

For the moment, though, there's little time for sentiment. Not with negotiations for temporary office space in Soho to deal with, or the need to bed in up to 35 members of Lowe London's Tesco team, who will be offered jobs so that the agency is ready to take over the business from 1 March.