Huddleston, who led media operations at BT for eight years with responsibility for all of its brands including BT Vision, BT Broadband and BT Business, left the business last month.
Astus is setting up a client services team and has appointed two other client directors to join Huddleston, namely Lisa Cowan, who was promoted internally, and Mathew Herbert, the sales and marketing director for Powerplate.
The new directors will focus on building and maintaining direct client relationships.
Huddleston's future at BT first became unclear in February after BT moved its £75 million media planning and buying account out of Publicis’ VivaKi and into Maxus.
It is believed relations between BT and the Publicis Groupe agency had reached an impasse over margins and promised returns before the split.
