LONDON — Former AxiCom managing director Richard White has joined telecoms and technology PR agency Temono as managing partner, as the boutique firm seeks to scale up its growth.

White (pictured) was at WPP tech agency AxiCom for 19 years until he was made redundant in November last year. He re-joins Ed Howson, who was at AxiCom until 2005, when he left to start Temono as a one-man consulting business while also founding Masabi, a tech start-up that has become a global leader in mobile ticketing for public transport.

Howson has brought White on board as he is now focusing on building the consultancy into a telecoms and technology agency, serving clients from start-ups to network infrastructure firms. The duo plan to grow the five-strong team to 10 people within the next 12 months.

“After a strong 2018 and even better looking 2019, it is an exciting time for Temono and the sector,” said Howson. “Our clients value the fact that they get a senior team who can provide proper counsel and understand their business and communications needs. Richard joining us means that we can continue to deliver strong senior leadership across all our clients.”

As managing director and head of AxiCom’s telecoms practice, White led the firm’s 2018 rebrand and key client accounts including Orange, Cisco IoT, PwC and Ciena.

He told the Holmes Report: “Ed and I know the space, we’ve worked with everyone from big telecoms and IT vendors to fintechs and companies focused on IoT, smart cities and edge computing – the more esoteric and geeky, the more we like it. We’ll be building up the client base, looking at growth areas like content marketing, and also working with clients who want to build their profile in the Chinese market.”

And he added: “It is a breath of fresh air to be back in a truly entrepreneurial agency environment where we have the freedom to put our clients first, to innovate and to build the team we need to make it happen.”