Former Fleishman-Hillard boss launches new agency

Blackburn left Fleishman in December last year, after being replaced by Scott Clark. He is setting up Resolute with Anna Korving, formerly director of the healthcare practice at PR agency Ketchum.

Before taking up the reins as managing director of Fleishman's London office in spring 2000, Blackburn was the founder of Ketchum's healthcare business. Ketchum and Fleishman are both owned by Omnicom. Blackburn said he could not comment on the reasons for his departure.

Resolute will launch with a staff of five and three clients, including two un-named major UK pharmaceutical companies. Blackburn said the firm was on target to have billings of £500,000 in its first year of trading.

Despite the downturn in the marketing industry as a whole, Blackburn denied it was a bad time to be starting a business. Apart from reduced costs in terms of property and pay, Blackburn said that, in the marketplace, "clients are receptive to a small, lean, efficient machine, where senior staff are going to work on their day-to-day business".

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum here.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com