LONDON--Mark Adams is departing Lansons, one year after the firm acquired his Foresight Consulting business.

Adams, a board director who has headed Lanson’s public affairs offering since the acquisition, will leave Lansons at the end of this week.

His departure comes after he hit the headlines last week, making a formal complaint to the PRCA regarding Bell Pottinger, after the firm was ensnared in a highly-publicised sting by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Adams will now devote his time to his campaign for higher professional standards in lobbying - standup4lobbying - and will launch his own public affairs consultancy.

“I’m very excited about this campaign I’m going to run,” said Adams. “It’s because Bell Pottinger came along that I thought it was time to launch.”

Lansons CEO Tony Langham and Adams also told the Holmes Report that the firm would continue to work together on specific clients. "We're still friends of course," said Langham.

His role as head of public affairs at Lansons will be assumed by board director Ralph Jackson, although Langham has indicated that the firm will look to strengthen the practice in early 2012.

The firm has also promoted Chris Bose to deputy head of public affairs. “Public affairs and public policy insight remain crucial to the success of our reputation management consultancy, and we will take this opportunity to review and strengthen public affairs in early 2012,” said Langham.

“For the record, Lansons’ view on professional standards in public affairs are pretty close to Mark’s,” added Langham. “We believe that lobbying is an integral part of a healthy democracy but don’t believe that the industry is capable of regulating itself, as the last two weeks have shown. We hope for the introduction of a lobbyists’ register and statutory regulation as soon as is practicable.”

Adams began his career as a civil servant, before serving as private secretary to two Prime Ministers, John Major and Tony Blair.