Telnic hires former MS&L telecoms chief Hayward

by Clare O'Connor, PR Week UK 15-May-08, 06:00

Former Manning, Selvage & Lee telecoms chief Justin Hayward has started as comms director at high-tech domain start-up company Telnic.

Hayward moved last week after two years at MS&L, where he was head of tech and telecoms (PRWeek, 1 May).

He will be responsible for comms as Telnic goes public later this year and will also oversee a search for a global PR agency over the next few months.

Telnic is the company behind the '.tel' domain name, which allows users to store all their contact details in one place using the infrastructure of the internet.

It acts as a net-based directory, easily accessible from mobile devices. 'It has a unique usage - it doesn't point to website pages like '.com' or '.org',' Hayward said.

He added that he would soon be starting a search for external PR support. 'We'll need to make quite a lot of noise in the international media as the global launch approaches,' Hayward said.

'Given the space this plays in, there's a significant element of working with online communities. There will be a lot more consumer and business-facing communication coming down the line starting from June.'