His departure follows the retirement of chief executive and president Michael Bungey at the end of 2002 and the departure of chairman Charlie Scott earlier this year. His exit is not unexpected. De Yturbe has previously talked about running for parliament in France.
Cordiant said that de Yturbe ceased to have an executive role with effect of March 5, but would remain as a member of the board.
De Yturbe joined Bates in July 1993 as chief executive officer of Bates France and was named chairman of Bates Europe in January 1995.
He was appointed to the board in December 1997 and took up the group president role for Bates Worldwide in December 1999, when Bungey moved to Cordiant. He relinquished his Bates roles and was appointed deputy president of Cordiant in March 2002.
De Yturbe said of his stepping down: "I wanted a change. I was there almost 10 years, and there is a new management team in place. I wanted to see and do something different, but I'm not sure what that is going to be yet. I will still be pursuing other activities within Cordiant."
Cordiant Communications is now being run by David Hearn, who originally came to the company when he was appointed to head the ailing Bates network worldwide. Scott was replaced by Nigel Stapleton, a former co-chairman of Reed Elsevier.
Since Hearn, who is based in New York, took over as CEO, the company has announced the sale of non-core assets, including its Australian operations, its stake in the Zenith Optimedia Group, the German ad agency Scholz & Friends and the City PR shop Financial Dynamics International.
Hearn has denied that the company is being forced to sell these assets, although he admitted: "We are mindful of the company's debt levels and recognise the positive impact this will have of helping to reduce long-term debt."
The company plans to focus on rebuilding the Bates advertising network and making it more competitive with other international agencies.
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