WPP Group executive VP Howard Paster is scouting for a CEO for Burson-Marsteller following the abrupt exit of Tom Nides after eight months on the job.

Tom Nides

Nides is quitting B-M in a few weeks to rejoin his mentor John Mack at Morgan Stanley. Mack replaced Philip Purcell at the helm of the investment bank on June 30 after a messy executive coup. Nides, who had never worked at a PR firm prior to B-M, will work closely with Paster to find a replacement.

B-M had recruited Nides from Credit Suisse First Boston, where he had followed Mack in '01 after the 60-year-old MS president resigned after a bitter power struggle with Purcell.

At both CSFB and MS, Nides handled corporate communications, marketing , government relations, human resources and advertising. He returns to MS as its chief administrative officer and a member of its management committee.s

Nides, who had also worked at Fannie Mae and on the staffs of former U.S. Trade Rep Mickey Kantor and House Speaker Tom Foley, had taken over for 60-year-old Chris Komisarjevsky at B-M.

Disgusted (7/15):
It's fine to say better for an unhappy manager to leave -- but the broader issue is why WPP insulted everyone who has ever worked for an agency by assuming that someone with ZERO agency experience could come in at the CEO level.

What PR agency exec in his or her right mind would want to take the job now, when WPP has made it clear they don't put much value on agency experience?

Former Burson Person (7/15):
So Nides barked at B-M for 8 months until Mack figured out what he was going to do. Nice job of recruiting, Mr. Paster, and here's hoping you can recover some of the headhunter's fee.

Meantime, what a great message this sends to B-M troops about WPP's ability to find committed leadership for its units. And what must B-M clients think?

Another example of what happens when the beancounters call the shots in a business built by Harold Burson on outstanding client service. Sad.

Chicago PR Guy responds to Former Burson Person (7/15):
Perfectly said. The illusion that any of these guys in senior management care about anything other than the bottom line is completely fallacious.

Ron Levy (7/15):
Burson-Marsteller and its clients are better off. When a manager wants to leave -- perhaps because the work proves more demanding than supposed or requires a differenmt skill set -- the employer is almost always better off bringing in someone who'll love the job and do it more successfully.

Burson-Marsteller is one of the firms at the very top of the mountain --and may need a leader who knows as much about PR as the led.