Core director Justin Cullen leaves to set up own business

Justin Cullen, a senior executive and director in Irish marketing group Core, will leave the company in January to set up his own advisory business and become chairman of Maximum Media.

Mr Cullen joined Core in 2010 when he became managing director of its digital agency Radical at a time when online advertising was a fast-growing but much smaller part of the market. Now, €1 in every €2 spent on advertising is digital. He later became its chief digital and data officer and then chief development officer, while Radical was renamed Core Digital.

“The market is going through exciting levels of change, and I want to tackle this change from a new angle, a new perspective, to break new ground,” Mr Cullen said.

As part of his exit, he will sell a small shareholding in Core back to the business, which is Ireland’s largest marketing communications group.

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His new company, Jolt Esquire, intends to "help brave companies tackle some of their larger challenges" at a time of ongoing change. The business will work with chief executives and chief marketing officers to "act as the bridge" between boardrooms and digital teams, he said.

Mr Cullen said Maximum Media – owner of the Joe, Her, SportsJoe and HerFamily brands – had been the key “challenger” media brand in Ireland and, increasingly, in the UK in recent years and he looked forward to taking up the chairman role in early 2019.

“In the next few years, the media sector is going to innovate at a pace in the next few years that excites me,” he said.

Core is led by chief executive Alan Cox and is 16 per cent owned by French advertising giant Publicis. Greencore boss Patrick Coveney serves as its chairman.