Close-Up: Profile - Opposites attract for Karmarama.(Nicola Mendelsohn)

Nicola Mendelsohn's imminent arrival heralds a new direction for the agency, Kate Nettleton says.

We don't enter expensive and egocentric creative awards, we don't do big adland parties, and I don't tend to hang around with other people in advertising.' These are the words of Dave Buonaguidi, the founding partner of Karmarama, in a letter to Campaign last year.

This attitude towards the industry permeates Karmarama, and has done since its conception, when Buonaguidi and his fellow St Luke's defector Naresh Ramchandani set up shop in 2000.

Even after a series of managerial shifts - with the departure of Ramchandani in 2005 and United's Sid McGrath replacing the planning partner Nick Barham in 2006 - its isolationist and left-of-centre attitude has been unrelenting.

So, it seems odd that Karmarama would hire adland's most infamous networker, the former Grey deputy chairman Nicola Mendelsohn, as its fourth equity partner.

However, the existing partners are resolute in their decision. McGrath says: 'We're not networkers because we've always put clients first, kept our heads down and concentrated on the work, and to be honest we're terrified of sticking our head above the parapet. But if you look at where we are now, getting someone like Nicola, who not only understands but creates the network, is really the smartest business move.'

Martin Jones, the head of advertising at the AAR, agrees that the match is an appropriate one: 'It'll be a good marriage of the agency's requirement, which is to be a bit more outward-facing, and Mendelsohn's need to feel part of something that she actually owns and can make a difference to.'