Hadfield, who founded and sold the websites Soccernet and Schoolsnet, will join digital design agency Cogapp and described his move as "helping to reinvent the future and not just making the mistakes of the past".
In a lively speech to delegates Hadfield urged journalists to be more entrepreneurial: "The future is much more diverse. There's not a dichotomy between being a journalist and an entrepreneur - the future is the individual journalist, not big media."
But the former assistant editor of the Sunday Times was more complimentary about the Telegraph's Will Lewis, who in November last year was appointed to oversee a new 'digital entrepreneurial unit' at the group, describing him as "an agent for cultural change".
"Greg Hadfield was employed at TMG on a 12-month contract which expired at the end of last week. It was mutually agreed that this would not be renewed. TMG is focusing its digital development on its Euston project and Hadfield had no involvement in this," a statement from the Telegraph says.
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