Terry Prone leaves Carr Communications after 25 years

Public relations consultant Terry Prone has left Carr Communications, the Dublin media training and PR company, after about 25 years with the firm.

Dermot McCrum, managing director of Carr Communications, confirmed Ms Prone's departure from the business, saying she had resigned as a non-executive director and terminated her contract with the company on Tuesday.

He said he could not comment on the reasons for her leaving.

Mr McCrum said he and the firm's chairman, Fergus Hoban, "deeply regretted" her departure.

It is believed that a rift at board level in the company may have prompted her resignation.

Ms Prone declined to say why she had left. "I don't think I am ready to talk about it yet. I need time to reflect," she said. She also declined to say what she would focus on after leaving Carr.

Mr McCrum said Ms Prone's son, Anton Savage, who also works as a broadcaster for RTÉ, and her husband, Tom Savage, continued to work with the company.

Ms Prone, a former managing director of the company and a prominent media commentator, helped build Carr Communications into one of the State's best-known communications, media training and public relations companies. The firm has provided training to politicians, public figures and government officials.

A large proportion of the company's turnover is derived from media training.

Ms Prone, Tom Savage and the firm's founder, Bunny Carr, were shareholders in the company until it was purchased in 2004 in a management buyout led by Mr McCrum and Donal Cronin, the company's head of training.

Mr McCrum is the main shareholder with 52.5 per cent of the shares in the company. Mr Cronin holds 25 per cent of the shareholding and Mr Hoban holds 22 per cent.

According to the most recently filed accounts, Carr Communications made a pretax profit of €544,000 during the financial year to June 30th, 2006, bringing the firm's retained profits to €5.8 million. It employed 22 people during the year.