Opinion: Perspective - Walsh offers Lowe a chance of calm after the storm.

So Lowe has found its woman. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Amanda Walsh's appointment is that it has taken so long to sign off. From the moment she quit United in May, Walsh's name has been linked with the Lowe challenge.

Let's face it, London's not awash with great chief executive candidates right now, and who's going to give up a comfortable job to take a risk at an agency as troubled as this one? I doubt that there was a stampede of applicants when Garry Lace was ousted from Lowe's chief executive chair earlier this year. If I say Lace is a hard act to follow, you'll get my drift. And heck, Lowe without its defining Tesco account is, anyway, a shadow of its former self.

Meanwhile, Walsh has been kicking her heels for a few months and seems ready for her next challenge. Talking to her, there's no sense that here's a woman with something to prove - she remains resolutely straightforward, realistic and enthusiastic. But if you cast your mind over her recent career (the forgettable Walsh Trott Chick Smith and the ultimately disappointing United), you can't help but feel Walsh still has a reservoir of unfulfilled potential.

Fans - and there are plenty of them - say Walsh is smart, polished, tenacious and fun. And do not underestimate the USP of the female agency chief executive. Lowe of old was the stomping ground for the testosterone-fuelled ego pursuing its own agenda. Walsh's appointment is a very clear and symbolic breaking of the mould. Or 'the dawn of a new era,' as one old-timer puts it with a sense of utter relief.

If there's a downside to her appointment, it's perhaps that Walsh seems at heart a traditional operator, groomed in the old full-service style It's hard to imagine her landing in Sloane Avenue with a radical shake-up strategy or feverishly proclaiming the death of advertising in the new digital world order. But that's undoubtedly the last thing shell-shocked staff need. After the whirlwind ...