Harry Torrance

Very sad news reached us this morning that Harry Torrance, who for the last seven years has headed up Adazzle, passed away suddenly yesterday of a heart attack, whilst on holiday in Thailand.

I wouldn’t say that I knew Harry really well despite meeting him many times over the last few years, but his company are spot on when they described him today as a “larger than life character.”

Harry certainly enjoyed his golf (he had a single figure handicap); his rugby (where he was a tenacious centre for Old Albanians RFC) and a beer or two.

He was also a supporter of numerous charitable initiatives, and was instrumental in setting up the Richard Thomas Foundation for which he tirelessly raised funds and awareness.

Harry started in media at LBC Radio, Express Newspapers & Mega Profile, and counted numerous members of the media industry amongst his closest friends.

He joined Adazzle in 2007. Adazzle is a relatively small player in this industry – supplying a system that helps make the buying of press and digital more efficient. Having tried to galvanise this part of the industry ourselves on a few occasions, we always acknowledged the strides they had made from nowhere and their resilience to stay, and grow, in this market.

Group M, Aegis and many of the largest publishers are customers, and Adazzle is making inroads overseas too. Much of that is down to Harry’s energy – and to his stoicism.

On occasions MediaTel also competed with Adazzle for contracts, and when I saw Harry a couple of weeks back he joked that in our recent Newsline coverage of the PATS contract we had said something nice about him (and Adazzle) “for the first time.” Twice in a month now would have had him chortling further.