Titan to recruit two new MDs for Maiden

The company has promoted managing director David Pugh to chief executive and appointed former Yahoo! UK commercial director Alison Reay and former Viacom Outdoor sales director Andy Moug as joint managing directors.
There is no role for Maiden Chief executive and major shareholder Ron Zeghibe. Reay will join Maiden once the sale of the company is completed, at the end of April. She left Yahoo! last Autumn after three years, to take a sabbatical. She led Yahoo!'s UK sales team and was at the forefront of building a pan-European sales force. Moug has recently been running his own sales training business.
Titan's chairman, Bill Apfelbaum, has worked with both Reay and Moug before. They are former sales directors of his old company, TDI. After winning the London Underground contract, Apfelbaum sold TDI and it is now part of Viacom Outdoor.
Under the new structure, Maiden's national sales director Philip Miles and regional sales director Richard Blackburn will retain their posts. The company is understood to have lost 14 salespeople since December, but is looking to recruit 25 more. Neither Pugh nor Apfelbaum was able to comment on the management changes.
However, Apfelbaum said an aggressive sales force was crucial to the company's recovery. "We can sell our way through these issues. They [Maiden's existing management] have been distracted by the financial pressures, by not having the support of their bank group, by the falling stock price. For us there will be none of that."
Titan will also need deep pockets. Industry insiders estimate that it will have to spend between £5m and £10m on its roadside billboards to make the medium profitable.