Media Headliner: De Nardis to bring cosmopolitan flair to Aegis.(Mainardo de Nardis)

Mainardo de Nardis is keen to set about bolstering the media network's international credentials. Alasdair Reid investigates.

Mainardo de Nardis is one of the most colourful characters in the business, known for his extravagantly elegant dress sense and his taste in fast cars. And no-one can doubt his drive, ambition and sheer stamina.

Or indeed the charisma that he uses to great effect in fine-tuning an agency network to make it purr (or, indeed, roar) like the engine of a vintage automobile.

But de Nardis does not come across as a recklessly adventurous type - although it is true that he has a taste for words such as 'entrepreneurship', which masters of business administration tend to use when they want you to believe they live on the edge.

Last week, de Nardis revealed that he has chosen to do something just a little bit risky - he is leaving his job as the worldwide chief executive of the WPP-owned Mediaedge:cia to take up the equivalent role at Aegis Media.

That's Aegis, the diversified communications group that is still effectively in play, with WPP one of its potential suitors.

You cannot help feeling that, potentially, Aegis gets a lot more out of this decision than de Nardis does. It has lost some of its key personnel over the past two years - the most obvious external sign of internal dissonance was the departure of Aegis Media Europe's joint chief executives, Eryck Rebbouh and Bruno Kemoun, in 2003 following disputes with the then group chief executive, Doug Flynn, over strategic direction.