Harding quits Feather Brooksbank with Giles to take recruitment task on

Harding was responsible for the agency’s recruitment team across the company’s four UK offices and was the first ever recruitment buyer to win The Drum’s Media Buyer of the Year in 2003.

He is thought to be considering launching his own business, although whether it will be a media agency is not known.

Before joining Feather Brooksbank, Harding was recruitment manager for The Guardian’s Scottish office.

According to Giles Brooksbank, joint managing director of Feather Brooksbank, the departure has been entirely amicable.

Commenting on Harding’s departure, Brooksbank said; “Tony is still a very strong ally of Feather Brooksbank and will continue to be so into the future.

“When you lose a co-director of a business, it is difficult. He has become a very trusted member of the team. But obviously we have to manage it to our best interests.”

Brooksbank would not disclose the reason for Harding’s departure, but said that the situation had been under discussion for some time and that clients had been informed of the situation.

He also said he hoped to work with Harding in the future.

“The situation is that Tony made a decision some time ago that he was going to leave, and what will be happening is that we will be managing our business in a slightly different way,” said Brooksbank, who will personally take charge of the recruitment side of the business following Harding’s departure.

“We’ve got a strong team that Tony’s put together over the years and we’re going to move our recruitment offering into new areas that we’ll develop in a way that really takes it forward from what Tony’s developed thus far. We’re going to put additional weight behind the division to continue to move it forward.”

Harding was unavailable for comment as The Drum went to press.