Greg Shand, a 25 year veteran of Baldwin Boyle Group and one of the country's pre-eminent PR practitioners, has announced today he is stepping down from the consultancy.   Highly respected as a strategic thinker in the world of corporate PR, Shand was one of the few who made a very successful transition from political journalist to PR maestro and played a major role in the development of BBG both in New Zealand and in Asia, where he ran some of the company's operations for some time.

Shand is close-lipped about his next step, but he is unlikely to be hanging out a shingle to compete with his former colleagues, despite the lack of golden handcuffs.   With his shareholding in BBG passing to what the PR firm describes as "a new generation of management", Shand is now free to pursue whatever new opportunities present themselves.   With some personal challenges in recent years now behind him, he is said to be looking forward to his new-found freedom and is unlikely to be making any substantive decisions until he has had a chance to relax and enjoy being a free agent for a while.  Enjoy the rest Greg - you deserve it.