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Novak will leave at the end of the month after spending 2003 as director and general manager of the organisation's Wholesale division.

As managing director of the media markets unit between 1999 and 2002, he saw annual sales of mail media grow from £350m to £1.2bn. Novak told Marketing he was keen to stay within the industry, but did not have a job to go to.

Last week, Royal Mail Group chief executive Adam Crozier announced that 3000 non-operational managers, including marketers, would leave the company under a voluntary redundancy programme. The cutbacks are in addition to job losses last year, which resulted in the departure of scores of marketers.

Insiders said Royal Mail will merge its domestic, international, and stamps and collectibles arms under one top marketing post. A spokesman said it has yet to be decided whether Rich, the UK marketing director and deputy managing director, will take this role. He added that no decision had yet been taken about future posts for Colin Beesley, sales and marketing director of the international division, or stamps marketing chief Julietta Edgar.

One source said Rich was favourite to get the job, and that he had already formulated plans for a restructure, with unit headings such as brand marketing, products, commercial policy and management and pricing. "Make no mistake, there are going to be deep cuts to the marketing operations," said the source.

Royal Mail has endured a torrid year, with a series of wildcat strikes and protests about plans to introduce a size-based pricing scheme.