Life goes on for de Kretser

Malaysia – Public relations (PR) guru Michael de Kretser says the ruling against his  high profile appeal is not the end of the road for him.

“You can try to take away a man’s livelihood but you can’t strip him of his dignity. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

“Like the legendary Nelson Mandela said ‘Whatever the obstacles, I will soldier on with my life’,” de Kretser said, in response to the Singapore High Court’s dismissal of an appeal by him against MDK Consultants – a WPP-owned company.

The court dismissed the appeal based on evidence submitted by MDK’s lawyers that there were meetings to discuss establishing a rival PR firm and staff poaching and clients.

The case named de Kretser, who founded MDK, and former CEO Michael Rose as defendants.

Another date will be set to mete out the costs and damages to be borne by de Kretser.

“After three long years the case MDK brought against me was finally lost.  It was not the result I expected, but you have to accept the referee’s decision,”de Kretser said in an email response.

“Twenty-five years of building a network through blood, sweat and tears has come to an end but despite losing the case, I’m still part of the Batey/WPP Group,” he said, citing his 33.8% shareholder stake in the group.

Currently CEO for Go Communications, de Kretser is writing Long Legs & Lemonade - a memoir to be published early 2009 on Asia's PR and the communications industry, also promising to reveal the “inner workings” of the WPP Group.