Mantra PR consumer head and former Sun journalist Edward
Waldron-Davies has left the agency.
While both parties describe the split as amicable, Waldron-Davies is
serving his notice away from clients on gardening leave, fuelling
speculation that he is set to launch his own agency.
Waldron-Davies said he had no concrete plans for the future, and refused
to be drawn on the options before him or his reasons for leaving the
agency.
'I felt that it was the right time to move on and decided to pursue
other interests,' he insisted.
Mantra joint MD Lawrence Dore said: 'It's nothing more than that. He
came here for a year and decided he wanted to move on and do other
things.' Dore added that the agency had seen a number of candidates for
the vacancy and expected an announcement within weeks.
Waldron-Davies joined the agency from Firefly, where he was head of
consumer affairs, in October 2000, when he was touted as Mantra's
consumer director (PRWeek, 6 October 2000).
However according to Dore, Waldron-Davies was one of six account
directors, adding that aside from himself and joint-MD Debbie Wosskow,
the agency 'does not have job titles'.
A former BBC news reporter and Sun northern correspondent,
Waldron-Davies had stints at Harrison Cowley and as head of Czech and
Slovak offices for MMD.
In his year at Mantra he secured new business including internet portal
Yahoo! (PRWeek, 8 December 2000) and Purple Ronnie (PRWeek, 3 August).
