Crossman, who founded what was Bates Interactive in 1995 before it was renamed as CCG.XM in a global realignment, is not to be replaced.
The management of the interactive unit at Cordiant is to fall to Dennis Kerslake, the managing director of Cordiant's sales promotion agency 141. Kerslake, the ex-managing director at Brann and BHWG, joined 141 in January when he took over from Paul Seligman.
Last year Cordiant amalgamated CCG.XM with 141 Worldwide, as part of company-wide cost cuts. At the time it said none of the agency's 60 UK staff would lose their jobs, but earlier this year 20 jobs were cut.
With no managing director of its own, Crossman's redundancy is another sign of the continued retrenchment of new media activity within the advertising world.
The axing of Crossman's job will come as a blow to the now much reduced interactive unit, which has won a slew of awards over the years and worked on prestigious sites such as The Number 10 Downing Street site.
It follows a reorganisation of Cordiant's agencies and the creation of the Bates Group, which integrated Bates Advertising, 141, the branding and design group Fitch and specialist network Healthworld to form a single offering.
Before the shake up, Cordiant announced that its CEO Michael Bungey was to retire next March, to be replaced by Bates Advertising worldwide CEO David Hearn. Charlie Scott, chairman of Cordiant, has also resigned.
Crossman is well known in the interactive industry and was included in Revolution magazine's Power 100. Originally from Winnipeg in Canada, Crossman is known for his theatrical leanings, having appeared on film with parts in Empire of the Sun, Grease and Little Shop of Horrors.
Before setting up Bates Interactive he was the managing director of Marshall Cavendish, which led to a job with News Multimedia, a News Corp company.
Cordiant refused to comment on the story, but did confirm Crossman's departure.
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