Hamish Pringle, the director general of advertising industry body the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, is to step down after a decade.
Pringle said he aims to take a role "related to the industry" after he leaves in July 2011.
"I don't mean for this to sound wrong but if you look at Terry Leahy this week [the longstanding head of Tesco who is to step down] all he has said in a major way is what I have said in our corner of the world about having an orderly succession," said Pringle, speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk. "It is the right kind of time [of tenure] for the job."
Pringle said the past few IPAdirector generals had averaged about 11 years in the role. He succeeded the former TV executive Nick Phillips.
He has held two five-year contracts although he said that in reality it is a "gentleman's agreement" with the agreement renewed on an yearly basis.
Pringle highlighted several achievements including establishing Touch Points, a media-centric survey of consumer habits which has become an industry standard, and the launch of IPA post-grad exam-based qualifications.
The qualifications were launched seven years ago and 3,600 ad industry executives have successfully passed through the scheme.
The IPA, which has member agencies representing 85% of all ad spend in the UK, has a total membership of 18,500.
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