Julian Hardy is leaving IPC only three months after being made
commercial director of IPC Electric.
Hardy said he would officially remain an IPC employee until the end of
the year in order to fulfil his commitments, but that he expected to
spend most of that time working from home. ’The split is amicable,’ he
added.
He said he had decided to quit because it had become clear that IPC
’isn’t going to deliver the objectives that a person of my experience
expects to realise, including a sizeable return on stock’.
Hardy expected to take the role of managing director over from IPC board
director Rene Carayol, but sources say he grew frustrated when this
seemed increasingly unlikely to happen. Hardy said: ’Rene has been
getting more involved in the day-to-day running of the company and he
wants to increase his involvement.’
He hinted that IPC Electric was not going to be able to meet its
business targets as quickly as he would have liked. ’I think media
owners face a number of problems delivering on the business plans of the
internet projects they have set up, most notably in the area of
e-commerce. That’s the area I want to focus on now.’
He said he was exploring various avenues. ’I’ve been offered a number of
exciting roles at existing companies but I’m also looking at start-up
opportunities.’
On Friday, calls to Hardy at IPC were being diverted to Kevin Kerrigan,
who recently joined IPC Electric as operations director (Media Business,
8 November).
Before joining IPC, Hardy, 30, was commercial director at Capital
Interactive.
Prior to that he was business development manager at Emap Business
Communications.