LONDON--Edelman chief content officer Richard Sambrook is departing the firm to join the School of Journalism at Cardiff University. 

Sambrook will retain an advisory role at Edelman, two years after he joined from the BBC. 

"In his two years at Edelman, he has been instrumental in putting the firm and our clients on the path to becoming content-oriented organizations," said Richard Edelman in an internal memo. "Richard has played a big role in bringing to life the concept of 'marketer as media company'."

Sambrook will become director of Cardiff University's School of Journalism. Before joining Edelman, he was the BBC’s director of global news and a member of the BBC’s management board. At the PR firm, he also held a vice-chairman role, and led its global crisis and issues practice.

"Journalism is going through a turbulent time and I just found myself drawn back towards those issues," Sambrook told the Holmes Report. "I’ve had a great time at Edelman, but in the end I came out of 30 years in journalism, and all of the changes drew me back towards that."