Crawford, the former head of McCann-i, became a board director at BJL when he moved from Twentysix Leeds, where he was deputy managing director, in November 2007.

Nicky Unsworth (pictured), managing director of BJL, told The Drum that Crawford's depature was the result of “the collective decision that David isn't the person to lead BJL into the next phase of digital growth”.

She said: “We are actively building our digital offering and are proud of our recent award wins in this area from CIPR and DADI. We agreed David’s future wasn’t part of this growing team but we wish him every success in the future.”

Unsworth also confirmed that the agency is planning to appoint a new digital director.

Crawford could not be reached for comment yesterday and it is unclear whether he is leaving the agency with another job to go to.

Before joining BJL, Crawford was deputy managing director of digital marketing agency Twentysix Leeds for 10 months.

He had previously been head of interactive at McCann Erickson's digital division, McCann-i, for almost two years, and had a nine-year spell at Principles Agency where he worked as an account director. He started his career as an account manager at Poulters in 1996.

BJL's digital client list includes Halewood, Kepak, Pilkington, Fisherman's Friend and Morphy Richards. The agency was also recently appointed by Asda.com.