Mr Noel Toolan, senior vice-president of market development at Iona Technologies, has announced his resignation to establish an international marketing consultancy.

Last night, Mr Toolan said that he had been hired a year-and-a-half ago to do a rebranding and marketing job for Iona, which had been completed and had now decided it was time to move on.

However, it is understood that Mr Toolan's departure also follows some policy disagreements with senior Iona personnel. There was no comment from Iona last night. Mr Toolan is understood to have received a substantial financial package.

Mr Toolan joined Iona in 1997 as vice-president of corporate marketing and was appointed senior vice-president of market development in August 1998. He was taken on by Iona to rebrand and market its middleware software products, where he focused on the promotion of the advertising slogan, "making software work together".

Iona has been reshaping elements of its strategy since a dip in quarterly profits led to a sharp fall in its share price.

Prior to joining Iona, Mr Toolan was international marketing director at Bord Failte, where he was involved in the redesign of the Bord Failte logo. Mr Toolan has also worked in senior positions with Procter & Gamble and Grand Metropolitan.

In his new company, a spokesman for Mr Toolan says he will be representing a number of blue-chip domestic and international companies in the areas of strategic marketing and management consultancy.