Jonathan Sands, CEO of Elmwood has revealed that while 2009 was a ‘painful’ year for the company, it was also a year of ‘significant achievement’.

Writing in the first edition of The Drum for 2010, Sands reveals the trials and tribulations faced by Elmwood but also discusses the successes and developments made by the company, including the appointment of Colin Burns, former managing director of IDEO London to the board as non-executive director.

2009 also saw Elmwood open a second US office, located in Chicago, alongside Eliot Schreiber joining as global president.

He reveals that the London office has also landed two global rebrand projects, while the company is recruiting in the UK and overseas for senior account handlers and designers.

Sands goes onto admit the ‘downsizing’ of the Edinburgh office, but maintains that Elmwood will continue to have a presence in Scotland and that an agency is current in talks to share the office space in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, senior designers from the Edinburgh office Paul Sudron and Graham Sturzaker who were at Elmwood for nine years and rejected opportunity to relocate to other Elmwood offices, have created their own agency and will be joined by Maryanne Murray, former client director at Elmwood Edinburgh, in February.

To enable them to launch, Sands says that he ‘gifted’ the team the kit to set-up and has released them from most of their restrictive covenants, allowing them to take some clients with them.

Read the full article by Jonathan Sands in the next edition of The Drum