My work

What gives you the right to ramble on about public relations, the media and communications?

Good question.

I’ve worked in communications and public relations for over ten years at some good agencies with some excellent people.

The links in the ‘my work’ tab at the top of the page above set out more detail about what I’ve achieved for clients over the years. There’s still a load of examples I want to add to this list, so stick with me, these will come.

But for those who just want a potted biography, here’s a starter for ten:

• 1977: Royal Leamington Spa, birthplace of Simon Francis. Now a republican.
• 1987: Coventry City win the FA Cup. Acquire a taste for success. Realise I will never become a professional footballer.
• 1994-1996: Worked in hotels as a (sometimes spotty), long-haired A-Level student. Learned how smoking equals more tea breaks (took me ten years to quit).
• 1997-1998: Features editor at Edinburgh Student. Like to think my article cost Malcolm Rifkind his seat in Parliament. Very doubtful.
• 1998-1999: President of Edinburgh Student. Five Live decided I was an expert on Scottish politics and put me as a pannelist on their election night show.
• 1999-2000: Equal opportunities adviser at Edinburgh University Students’ Association. Took on Brian Souter and the forces of bigotry, result was the repeal of Section 2A (the Scottish equivalent of Section 28). Also came out of university knowing how to change a beer keg, a 2:1 in history and a hatred of millionaire J. K. Rowling (she didn’t tip me).
• 2000-2002: First proper PR job at Johnson King. Learned how to drink Guinness professionally on a press trip with Enterprise Ireland.
• 2002-2004: Escaped IT PR and went to Geronimo – now Kindred. Got used to the Friday afternoon crisis call as Young People Now took another pot shot at youth advice service Connexions.
• 2004-2011: Climbed the greasy PR pole at Band & Brown (now Citizen). Got as high as Managing Partner, won plenty of pitches (lost a few too), discovered social media. Got quoted in PR Week a lot and even won an award.
• 2011: Ran the largest temporary media centre in London, co-ordinated a fair few VIP visits and worked with a great team to generate loads of coverage for WorldSkills London 2011.

And right now? In 2012-13 I’ve been working with the National Apprenticeships Service as a communications consultant and joined Claremont Communications as a Director and also worked alongside former Band & Brown colleagues at Tribe PR. All views expressed on this blog remain entirely personal.

My appearances in other media are summarised on this page, but you’ll need to password ‘media1′ to access the page.

And you can email me or via Claremont if you would like to talk about future projects.

My company is registered in England,  number 0770530.

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