Tunnicliffe quits CIA after clash…

CIA Medianetwork managing director Mike Tunnicliffe has quit suddenly, without a job to go to.

Tunnicliffe, managing director for the past three years, quit on Fri day. Sources close to CIA say his departure has come as a shock to everyone in the agency, although Tunnicliffe is known to have been unhappy with his position for some time.

One source says: “It was a power struggle between Mike Elms (chairman of CIA UK Holdings) and Tunnicliffe – Elms won. I am surprised it is him going and not Elms. It is a testament to his skills that CIA lost no clients during the whole overtrading business.”

In 1996, TV airtime sales house Laser accused CIA of overtrading on various client accounts – over-trading, in this instance, refers to CIA defaulting on promises to the sales house. It was later paid 1.8m in compensation.

Last year, Elms spent most of his time building up the European network, but in March this year he was brought back to concentrate on UK business. This brought him into close contact with Tunnicliffe, who ran CIA UK Holdings’ single biggest subsidiary, CIA Medianetwork.

Tunnicliffe will not be replaced. Elms will continue as chairman, but will also become chief executive.

Roger Powley will join UK Holdings as managing director once he has worked out his notice at Carat UK, where he was group finance director. Marco Rimini remains CIA Medianetwork UK vice-chairman.