Alliance senior vp corporate communications Robert Pattillo is one of the first to signal he will not be staying with the new merged entity Alliance Atlantis Communications.

While Pattillo is currently working flat-out on the upcoming crtc Canadian Television Policy Review, the communications exec is also considering a book deal. A mid-range five-figure advance has reportedly been offered by a u.s. publisher with a Canadian division for Pattillo’s prose and anecdotal experiences at Canada’s largest and most notorious production company.

Pattillo joined Alliance from the cbc three years ago after a stormy four-year run as the public broadcaster’s senior communications officer charged with downsizing the promotion/publicity group in the face of massive budget cuts.

He was responsible for the cbc’s new corporate signature and on-air branding while offsetting huge cuts in advertising spending with an on-air promotion strategy that forced all cbc networks – radio and television – to cross-promote programs.

Pattillo’s accomplishments at Alliance are not as tangible, although some observers give him credit for providing the company and chairman Robert Lantos with a much higher and more thoughtful profile in Ottawa.

Pattillo himself has been a central player within the cftpa where his influence will be sorely missed, says president Elizabeth McDonald, particularly as the crtc ramps up for the massive fall hearings.

‘He’s truly one of the sharpest thinkers in terms of public policy that I’ve ever met, and one of the bluntest,’ says McDonald, who spoke about Pattillo although she hadn’t received official word of his departure.

McDonald says that since its first utterance, Pattillo’s infamous quote, ‘More rum in bigger bottles, more pavement for wider roads,’ has been used liberally. The phrase has been borrowed for everything from summing up the cftpa’s government lobbying strategy at late-night meetings to being lifted (with credit) by Great North’s Andy Thomson when he sat on a broadcaster-heavy Can-Pro panel and asked what producers really want.

Comments Bill House, Telefilm Canada director operations, Ontario: ‘If he does leave, it will be very sad with respect to public policy issues to which Robert has made very significant contributions in his time at Alliance.’

Rumors circulate about where Pattillo will land when he leaves Alliance. Beyond broadcasting and now independent production/distribution, his communications career spans 20 years and includes stints in both federal and provincial government, as well as banking with Scotiabank and professional services with Ernst & Young.

Bets are that he’ll return to financial services where bank mergers and demutualization all cry out for better communications.