Butters, a former Burson-Marsteller UK technology chief, said he wants ‘to play in a bigger field’, adding that chairman and founder Mike Spreckley’s intention to increase his involvement in the agency had been a factor in his exit: ‘There wasn’t really room for all of us.’
Spreckley, along with directors Richard Merrin and Lindsay Spencer, who joined in September from icas PR, will run the agency as a ‘triumvirate’, according to Merrin.
Butters, who joined Spreckley in February last year, denied the 20-strong agency was downsizing and said 2004 profits were on course to be double the previous year’s. ‘I was lured with the premise of helping to build the agency, which we’ve done to a certain extent. I am still pondering my next move but I want a larger challenge,’ he said.
Butters spent eight years at technology firm Harvard PR, latterly as board director and general manager of its central London operation Harvard Centro, before joining B-M to head its 12-person technology division.
In response to Butters’ exit, Merrin said the agency was in good shape, having replaced a ten per cent drop in fee income for 2003 with client wins this year.
l Spreckley Partners has been appointed by the Romantic Novelists’ Association to handle PR for its Foster Grant Romantic Novel of Year Awards in April. Spreckley will try to improve understanding of the genre.
