Close-Up: Can new team bring stability to SapientNitro?(Company overview)

Malcolm Poynton and Kim Douglas have the pedigree to make the agency's integrated offering work.

The entrance to Nitro's London office has been spinning faster than the revolving door at Harrods on Boxing Day since the company placed its foot in the UK market five years ago.

Founded by Chris Clarke in Shanghai in 2002, Nitro launched its London offering by buying out the Bartle Bogle Hegarty breakaway Soul in 2005, and the conveyor belt of senior management teams hasn't stopped since Unfortunately for the agency, its UK office has also since been a consistent underperformer in both creative and new-business terms.

Clarke admits: 'We've never got it right in London. I never gave any love or care to London. But now I've made a commitment to spend time there so we can get the right culture going and I'm not going to try to do it from 7,000 miles away.'

That promise itself may be cause for concern among observers. Many of the ex-Nitro staff say that it was Clarke's 'overbearing' management style, projected from departure lounges, that …