Ford’s Ad Agency to Get New Boss

WPP Group has hired auto ad veteran David Murphy as president of its Team Detroit unit, which handles Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. advertising.

He will start on Aug. 1 and report to Mark LaNeve, COO of Global Team Ford. Murphy replaces co-managing directors Mike Bentley and Paul Venn. LaNeve tells Adweek that the two executives will retain global responsibilities at the ad shop.

Murphy will oversee the work of staffers from the six WPP agencies that comprise Team Detroit: JWT, MEC, MindShare, Ogilvy & Mather, Wunderman and Young & Rubicam.

Murphy has been working as a marketing consultant for about a year since leaving Barrie D'Rozario Murphy, the Minneapolis-based ad agency he co-founded in 2007.

In previous jobs, Murphy handled advertising for Toyota as president of Saatchi & Saatchi's Torrance, Calif., office; and Land Rover and Lincoln Mercury as managing partner of Y&R's Irvine, Calif., unit.