I've loved business since I was at school.
We'd watch shaky VHS recordings of the BBC’s 1980s TroubleShooter series, fronted by Sir John Harvey Jones (a respected business leader for his turnaround job at chemicals giant ICI). He'd go into a struggling business and offer advice on how they could turn things around. I was inspired.
I went on to do a business degree, and I think the business-outcome-centric approach I've always taken to PR, is down ito being inspired by those programmes.
My first proper job led me to become lead spokesperson for the British recorded music business.
Working up from intern, I became an influencer of sorts - building a personal brand that resulted in me making 100+ media appearances including Jon Snow grillings on Channel 4 News, appearances on BBC Breakfast and This Morning couches, dozens of talking-head TV soundbites and radio interviews on BBC, Sky, CNN and more.
I ghost-wrote articles for titles like the FT and The Sun in defence of the principle that for all the benefits of technology, creative people deserve the right to be paid for their work.
I then spent three years at the BBC, after the launch of the BBC iPlayer, as it underwent its own digital transformation. Working behind the scenes I ran corporate comms for the 'future media and technology' division, leading the team responsible for promoting digital services like BBC iPlayer, its apps and TV platforms.
After the BBC, I worked for a range of startups and services firms. I was part of the leadership team at Propeller PR as it transitioned from a founder-managed lifestyle business into a serious growth business, doubling in size in three years.
I then founded and ran PPR, a pay as you go PR agency. Starting with no clients, and no money, it went on to employ five people and dozens of PR freelancers. It survived the pandemic (ish) delivering hundreds of pieces of coverage for fifty+ different clients - all small firms.
So I've worked in-house, running departments, in agencies at director level, as a company founder and independently as a consultant. An avid reader of business books and a proud ambassador for the Read To Lead community, I also hold a degree in Management Science, and love to use that experience to advise others.
Outside of work, I try to keep fit (running, bootcamp, tennis, cycling). I love to snowboard, a bit of karaoke, and I'm an amateur actor with ten productions under my belt.
Most of this thanks to the community in my beloved village of Blewbury in Oxfordshire where I live with my wife, two teenage kids, and Basil the cat.