He leaves the agency a year after Lansons bought his business, Foresight Consulting. Adams founded Foresight in 2001 by Adams, a former civil servant who was private secretary to both John Major and Tony Blair during their time as prime ministers.
Lansons founder Tony Langham confirmed Adams’ departure in an email to staff and said that Adams’ desire to run a high profile pro lobbying campaign was one reason behind the move.
Langham wrote: ‘Mark will in the short-term devote significant time to this campaign and also expects to pick up public affairs consultancy projects in 2012. We remain friends and Mark will continue to work with us on some clients.’
Adams is to launch a dedicated website called standup4lobbying.org. The move comes in a week after he launched an official complaint with the PRCA over the conduct of Bell Pottinger around the The Independent ‘sting’ opperation.
Langham added that Ralph Jackson would become acting head of public affairs, while Chris Bose – a participant in PRWeek’s 29 under 29 this year – will become deputy head of PA.
Langham added: ‘Public affairs and public policy insight remain crucial to the success of our reputation management consultancy, and we will take this opportunity to review and strengthen public affairs in early 2012. A key objective remains the development of further public affairs clients outside our heartland of financial services.
‘For the record, Lansons’ view on professional standards in public affairs are pretty close to Mark’s. We believe that lobbying is an integral part of a healthy democracy but don’t believe that the industry is capable of regulating itself, as the last two weeks have shown. We hope for the introduction of a lobbyists’ register and statutory regulation as soon as is practicable.’
