Tony Houghton will be retiring from the advertising business at the end of the month to start a second career as a novelist based in the Bahamas.

Houghton joined Chicago-based Leo Burnett U.S.A. as president and managing director in October 1993 after an eight-month stint as president of Hal Riney & Partners in San Francisco.

Leo Burnett

He was chairman, chief executive officer and chief creative officer of Leo Burnett, Toronto from 1986 to 1992.

Before joining Burnett, Houghton spent 21 years with Ogilvy & Mather offices around the world, beginning as a copywriter with O&M, London in 1965.

In 1975, he joined the Toronto operation as creative director.

Leo Burnett U.S.A. has no plans to fill the position vacated by Houghton. PS