I’m the Managing Director for Financial Communications at Edelman in London. I’m also a frustrated rock star – frustrated mainly by a lack of musical talent – and renowned music freak whose favourite bands include the White Stripes, the Dandy Warhols, Oasis, Velvet Revolver, the Raconteurs, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, AC/DC and an all-girl West Coast band called the Donnas who are in my humble opinion rock’s best kept secret. I’m married to Emma, a freelance PR, and live in Beckenham, Kent with our three children Sam 16, Georgia 11 and Ted 4.
I joined Edelman in December 2005 from a financial communications agency based in the City of London where for four years I led the firm’s financial services business, working across a number of sectors with particular focus on the hedge fund and banking industries.
Prior to this I was Director of Corporate Communications at Alliance & Leicester plc (A&L) with responsibility for media relations, internal communications, public affairs and corporate and social responsibility. Prior to joining A&L I was Head of European Public Relations for the Tax and Legal Services arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers and between1993 and 1996 Head of Public Relations at NatWest UK, with responsibility for all external communications activity for the bank’s corporate, retail and insurance businesses. I spent my early career in a range of retail and commercial banking roles within NatWest.
For my sins I have extensive crisis management experience gained in situations as diverse as the bombing of the NatWest Tower in 1993, the aborted merger talks between Alliance & Leicester and the Bank of Ireland in 1999 and the controversial change of executive management at Alliance & Leicester in the same year. Between 2004 and 2005 I was involved in supporting Jarvis as it restructured its finances, re-negotiated facilities with its banks and performed a debt for equity swap.
I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Investor Relations Society, and I co-chair the Financial Services Forum of British American Business (the UK/US Chamber of Commerce) in the UK. I am also a visiting lecturer on financial public relations at Cardiff University’s highly regarded School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.
