(Updates with background details, beginning in fourth paragraph.)

 
   By Emily Steel 
   Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 
 

Interpublic Group of Cos. (IPG) is in talks to hire Michael Wall, the former head of Omnicom Group Inc.'s (OMC) BBDO Portugal, as chief executive of its Lowe Worldwide ad agency, according to people familiar with the matter.

Wall, a founding partner of Publicis Groupe SA's (PUB.FR) Fallon London, left BBDO Portugal in March after less than a year at the agency. If appointed as Lowe's CEO, he would succeed Steve Gatfield, who has been at Lowe's helm since March 2006. Gatfield's contract with Lowe ends this summer.

Wall couldn't be reached for comment.

Lowe has long struggled but has started to show signs of recovery. At the time Gatfield assumed his post, there were questions about the agency network's continued existence. Interpublic said Lowe was profitable in 2008, thanks to new-business wins from Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle and others. The agency network has continued to get new business, securing ad work from both Matrixx Initiative's Zicam and Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

IPG also had been in discussions with Robert LePlae, the former North American president of Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day, to lead Lowe, according to people familiar with the matter. LePlae left the Omnicom agency in January.

-By Emily Steel, The Wall Street Journal; 212-416-3707; emily.steel@wsj.com

(Suzanne Vranica contributed to this report.)