David McMurtrie, UK managing director of Real Media, has quit the new-media sales house without a job to go to.
Industry sources said McMurtrie had resigned in protest over recent redundancies at the company.
However, a Real Media spokeswoman insisted it was a case of 'bad timing'.
She stated that the MD had already arranged to take some time out to go travelling well before nine staff were handed their notice last week (Media Business, 4 December).
It is not clear how long McMurtrie will be abroad but he is scheduled to leave the country on Tuesday of this week.
In the meantime, Tim Brown, general manager, Europe, advertising, has been placed in charge of Real Media's UK operation.
Brown, who declined to comment on McMurtrie's departure, was UK managing director before being promoted to the newly-created European role in July last year.
In 1999, McMurtrie joined Real Media as marketing and operations director from MediaCom, where he was director of international media. Before MediaCom, he worked at STV and Grey as international media manager.
He was promoted to UK managing director as part of the top-level summer shake-up, which saw Brown take charge of a ten-strong European team.
The news of McMurtrie's departure comes one week after commercial director Jonathan Bill announced he was leaving to join Reuters Media as business development director (Media Business, 15 January).
The job cuts at Real Media were instigated to cope with a tough trading climate. Engage, 24/7 Media and DoubleClick have all been forced to lay off staff, although, as yet, the majority of the redundancies have been in the US.
DoubleClick predicted last week that its advertising revenues would plummet by between 30 and 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2001.
Analysis, p13.
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