I have to thank my parents’ pub, the ‘Francis Arms’ – the place I called home until my late teens – for the fact that I am in PR today. This old-fashioned gentleman’s pub in rural Leicestershire encouraged me to appreciate the beauty of a well-told story. I was sitting in the bar when it dawned on me that communication in all its forms has the power to change perception – from a news broadcast to people talking down the pub; literally.
I studied public relations at Bournemouth University; aside from it being a leading media university in Europe, it also offered me the opportunity to feed my obsession with the news media, politics, and communications. I admit the beach location did help swing it for me … but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. While at Bournemouth I worked with the Student Union to improve their internal as well as external communications. I left Bournemouth, having also spent a year working in internal communications at Robert Bosch as part of the degree, with a first-class honors degree.
Variety is the spice of life, they say, and I tend to agree. I’ve enjoyed variety throughout my PR career, having fallen in love with the PR agency world through a short stint at Ketchum Pleon, followed by two years in Edelman’s technology practice where I worked on a range of large and small clients including Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, ICAN and the London School of Economics’ Carbon Bubble Report.
There’s variety every day at Finn Partners. I enjoy working with a range of education, professional development, professional services, foundation and not-for-profit clients including the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Yalta European Strategy Conference. I particularly value having our international Finn Partners teams on hand as it allows us to offer a globally streamlined approach to clients locally and globally.
I am a massive foodie and have launched and write a London restaurant blog which is now five years old. In the spirit of variety, I set myself goals to learn new skills every year. Creative writing, life drawing, learning French, mosaic lessons, pottery and taxidermy are just some of the disciplines I’ve tried (some more successfully than others!).