Top 100 Public Affairs Professionals

 

Government Affairs Group/Total Politics

 

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Also in this section:

• The good lobbyist guide

Keith Johnston

• Effective Interrupting

Harry Witchel

• Rise of the Super-Nimby

David Madden

• The PPC conundrum

EB Young

The CIPR Government Affairs Group

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is a UK public relations industry professional body. Founded in February 1948, it today has more than 9,000 members.

 

The Government Affairs Group is the public affairs wing of the CIPR and it represents the views of public affairs professionals across the industry, giving evidence to the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Public Administration Select Committee.

 

The Group attracts speakers of the highest political (and non-political) calibre. Recent speakers include some Labour cabinet members, Nick Clegg and David Cameron. For further information about joining the CIPR and the Government Affairs Group, please visit http://www.ciprgag.org.uk/

 

How the list was compiled
These lists are often controversial. Rankings are incredibly difficult and are not an exact science. To ensure some quality control, the list was compiled by a team led by Keith Johnston, the current Chairman of the Government Affairs Group, carefully advised by two previous chairmen of the Group, as well as senior members of the current GAG Committee who, naturally, have removed themselves from consideration in the rankings.

Judges: Keith Johnston (Chairman of CIPR GAG), Robert Khan (Former Chairman), Lionel Zetter (Former Chairman), George Crozier (Membership Secretary, GAG), Iain Dale and one anonymous senior public affairs professional.

 

 

 

1.

Warwick Smith
Partner leading College Public Policy
College Hill

 

A fixture at the top of the lobbying business for the last 20 years, and one of the most respected people in it, Warwick Smith has become a lobbying grandee. Those who have worked with him say he is not flashy or brash, but a man who loves his work, loves politics, loves business, and is one of the best around when it comes to working a room. Smith spent the first 17 years of his working life as a civil servant, but left in 1990 to join what was then Westminster Communications. After a buyout by Citigate, he was appointed MD of the merged company, where he stayed until three years ago when College Hill wooed him away to run their new public policy practice. College Public Policy has been in expansion mode under his leadership, snapping up public affairs planning consultancy Communiqué in 2008, Precise Public Affairs in April this year and another planning consultancy, Green Issues, in May. A former chair of the industry body, the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), Smith is also a cheerleader for his profession. He once told an interviewer that British lobbyists should follow the example of their American counterparts by taking more pride in their work and recognising the crucial part that lobbying plays in the political process.

 

 

2.
Malcolm George
Executive Director of Government Relations
EDS (newly renamed as HP Enterprise Services)

 

Type the words EDS', 'government', IT' and fiasco' into Google and the results flood out. Yet despite huge delays on projects for the Child Support Agency and the MoD, and even having to pay compensation to the government over their tax credits system, the company founded in 1962 by eccentric Texan (and 1990s presidential candidate) Ross Perot remains the UK government's largest IT contractor. As the company's government relations chief, Malcolm George can claim a great deal of credit for that. "Associates describe him as a 'genuinely nice guy' as well as 'a good person to have on your side'" George worked at agencies Connect Public Affairs and Burson-Marsteller before being lured to EDS in 2004 to take on the role of director of marketing and communications for the under-fi re IT services company, later moving to his present role. George is popular with his peers. His crowning as 'In-house professional of the year' at the 2006 Public Affairs News awards, and the standing ovation which accompanied it, are testament to the high regard in which he is held. Famed for his lunches, associates describe him as a "genuinely nice guy" as well as "a good person to have on your side". With very good relationships across the parties, George is in a strong position to help keep the newly renamed company in poll position for government IT services, whatever the result of the next election.

 

 

3.
Peter Carroll
Gurkha Justice Campaign

 

The architect of Britain's most successful lobbying campaign of 2009 is not a professional lobbyist. His day job is running a road haulage firm. But a campaign that he launched six years ago led this spring to a government defeat in the House of Commons, a public U-turn by the Prime Minister and to his being besieged by crowds of fans on a celebratory tour of Nepal. "The architect of Britain's most successful lobbying campaign of 2009" Peter Carroll first got involved in the Gurkha Justice Campaign after being approached by four Gurkhas at his home in Folkestone, where the Royal Gurkha Rifl es are based and where he is a councillor, to ask for his help in saving one of their comrades from deportation. He got in touch with the Gurkhas' lawyers, and also used his contacts in the Liberal Democrats to raise the profi le of the campaign, organising demonstrations at Westminster and persuading Charles Kennedy to raise the issue at PMQs. The campaign won some government movement - Gurkhas retiring since 1997 were allowed to stay - but it was when he approached actress Joanna Lumley, whose father had served with the Gurkhas, that the campaign's profile really took off. The combination of Carroll's strategy, Lumley's star power and a powerful cross-party alliance eventually prevailed and the government extended the right to stay to all ex-Gurkhas. Mission accomplished, Carroll is now focusing on his efforts to succeed Ann Widdecombe as MP for Maidstone and the Weald.

 

 

4.
Michael Burrell
Vice Chairman, Europe
Edelman

 

A lobby correspondent turned lobbyist, Michael Burrell has been a leading figure in the public affairs world for some 26 years. He was ousted as chairman of Grayling Political Strategy in a restructuring seven years ago, but within two months had been snapped up by global PR giant Edelman to become their European head of public affairs. He claims to have one of the best jobs in the industry.

 

 

5.
Gill Morris
Managing Director
Connect

 

Blonde, energetic and down to earth - it is not hard to see why one associate affectionately described Gill Morris as "public affairs' answer to Barbara Windsor". But beneath the bubbly exterior is a very smart and successful businesswoman who raised the profile of the APPC when she chaired it, and is perhaps the best connected Labour lobbyist in the industry. She is also the leading woman in public affairs.

 

 

6.
Peter Bingle
Chairman
Bell Pottinger Public Affairs

 

Industry veteran Bingle was a Tory councillor in Wandsworth in the 1980s, where he was so enthusiastic about introducing speed humps in the borough that they became known as 'Bingle bumps'. He has not been afraid to shake things up as a lobbyist either, refusing to sign Bell Pottinger up to the industry body, the APPC, because of its requirement for client lists to be disclosed. Bon viveur Bingle makes a virtue of his appreciation of the finer things in life, declaring himself "never knowingly underlunched".

 

 

7.
Darren Murphy
Managing Director, Global Services to Government
APCO

 

A political bruiser, Murphy, a former adviser to Tony Blair, is reported to have squared up to Gordon Brown's parliamentary aide, Ian Austin, in a late night shouting match in a bar at Labour's 2007 conference. At the time he was just beginning his second stint at APCO, having been tempted back after six months at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. In August this year he took on a new global role for the agency.

 

 

8.
Jon McLeod
Chairman, UK Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
Weber Shandwick

 

Although he moved upstairs from being managing director to take on a more strategic role in 2005, Jon McLeod continues to advise clients such as the Bar Council on their political and media campaigns on behalf of Britain's biggest public affairs consultancy. An astute politician and businessman, McLeod has strong New Labour connections but is well equipped to adapt to any regime change. As a member of a student rock band, he once supported New Order. His wife is the novelist Wendy Holden, with whom he lives most of the week in Derbyshire in a former Victorian gardener's lodge built in the shape of a small castle.

 

 

9.
Robbie MacDuff
Partner
College Public Policy

 

Steely but sociable, MacDuff is a great survivor of the public affairs scene. A one-time Labour researcher, he began his lobbying career with the disgraced lobbying firm Ian Greer Associates, resigning in the aftermath of the 'cash for questions' affair in 1996, shortly before the whole agency liquidated itself. After a stint heading up Westminster Strategy's Scottish operation, MacDuff came south in 2002 to co-found a new agency, Precise, which was sold to City PR firm College Hill in April this year. It has been integrated into the firm's public affairs wing, with MacDuff becoming a partner. MacDuff is highly regarded by his peers. He was voted UK public affairs consultant of the year in 2007 and is the current chair of the APPC, steering the industry through tricky waters, with the threat of regulation on the horizon.

 

 

10.
Kevin Bell
Regional President, UK, Africa and the Middle East
Fleishman-Hillard

 

A formidable operator, as befits someone who grew up in the Labour heartlands of County Durham but became a Thatcherite Tory. With 29 years in the industry, Bell is a veteran of tough assignments, such as when he flew in to lead Fleishman-Hillard's support for the Zimbabwe opposition in their campaign to expose the Mugabe regime's election rigging last year. Charming and gregarious, Bell is said to be "very mean with company money, but very generous with his own".

 

 

11.
Shami Chakrabarti
Director
Liberty

 

Britain's highest profile human rights champion. Chakrabarti joined Liberty as in-house counsel on 10 September 2001, after working as a lawyer for the Home Office. The terrorist attacks of the following day defined her next eight years.

 

 

12.
Simon Nayyar
Managing Director
Citigate Dewe Rogerson Public Policy

 

With his camel overcoat and rolled umbrella, Nayyar shows a smooth touch, whether in the corridors of power or on the council estates of Hackney South and Shoreditch, where he will stand for the Conservatives at the next election.

 

 

13.
Angela Knight
Chief Executive
British Bankers' Association

 

The woman who put her head above the parapet to defend banking when the bankers themselves were diving for cover. A Treasury Minister under John Major, Knight has the "best twin set and pearls in the business", according to one associate.

 

 

14.
Sacha Deshmukh
Chief Executive
Mandate

 

A self-professed dog obsessive, Deshmukh clearly values loyalty in business too, having stayed with Mandate, and its predecessor company AS Biss, since joining as a graduate trainee in 1997.

 

 

15.
Alex Bigg
Managing Director
Edelman Public Affairs

 

In eight years, Bigg has risen through the ranks to run the UK public affairs wing of the world's largest independent PR agency. He personally heads up the recently-won Starbucks account. Bigg took time out to work on Tony Blair's tour during the 2005 election.

 

 

16.
Michael Prescott
Managing Director
Corporate Communications and Pulic Affairs, Weber Shandwick

 

As political editor of the Sunday Times, Prescott broke stories like Ann Widdecombe's "something of the night" attack on Michael Howard. At Weber Shandwick - with a remit covering both media strategy and public affairs - he handles high profile clients such as IKEA and MasterCard.

 

 

17.
Graham McMillan
Chief Executive
Open Road

 

McMillan quit Fishburn Hedges in January 2007 to found Open Road with APCO MD Nick DeLuca and in-house public affairs chiefs Martin Le Jeune (Sky) and Victoria Tate (Spirit Group). Clients already include giants like HSBC and Orange as well as the Bingo Association and campaigners against illegal deforestation.

 

 

18.
Caroline Weber
Executive Director
Communications and Public Affairs , Sport England

 

A former McDonald's comms chief, Weber has forsaken fast food to help lead Sport England's campaign to get a million more people regularly participating in sport by 2012/13. Weber is the highest placed public sector employee on our list.

 

 

19.
Daniel Mobley
Group Head of Public Affairs
Standard Chartered Bank

 

Oxford-graduate Mobley was a civil service high flier before quitting his Treasury role in December 2007 to join Standard Chartered. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last year to raise money for sight restoration projects in Tanzania.

 

 

20.
Jonathan Bracken
Partner and Head of Public Policy
Bircham Dyson Bell

 

BDB is rare among law firms in having a specialist public affairs practice, and Bracken has headed it up since its formation in 2004. He is well known in the industry for his expertise in US and EU lobbying.

 

 

21.
Tim Allan
Managing Director
Portland

 

Hired fresh from university by Tony Blair, Allan served as Alastair Campbell's deputy for four years before quitting to join BSkyB in 1998. He founded Portland in 2001 and is well-connected among Tories (the party's strategy director Steve Hilton is a friend) as well as Labour.

 

 

22.
Charles Lewington
Managing Director
Hanover

 

Lewington is known as Lord Charles for his easy charm and impeccable manners. Press secretary to John Major during his time as Prime Minister, Lewington's Tory connections leave him well positioned for a future Tory government.

 

 

23.
Rod Cartwright
Managing Director of Public Affairs
Ketchum

 

A well-known industry figure, Cartwright was last year's Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA)  Personality of the Year and, in January this year, became the inaugural chairman of the PRCA's Public Affairs Group.

 

 

24.
Iain Anderson
Director, Chief Corporate Counsel
Cicero Consulting

 

Anderson has headed up corporate comms at the financial services specialists since he co-founded the agency with three other ex-Ludgate Public Affairs staff in 2000. Clients include Barclays, Scottish Widows, the Consumer Focus watchdog and private equity giant Blackstone.

 

 

25.
John Lehal
Managing Director
Insight

 

Lehal is a former Labour researcher and parliamentary candidate who worked for a string of public affairs agencies before launching Insight with James Tyrell in 2006. He led a 20 strong delegation of Insight consultants, Labour MPs and staffers who campaigned in Florida last year in support of the Obama presidential campaign.

 

 

26.
Matt Lambert
Director of Corporate Affairs
Microsoft UK

 

The face to UK government of the world's sixth most valuable company, Lambert is responsible for leading Microsoft's government affairs activity, facing questioning from select committees on isues such as internet security and violent video games.

 

 

27.
Katherine Bennett
Director of Communications and Government Affairs
Airbus

 

Bennett shares her time between London and the Airbus factories in Gloucestershire and Toulouse. A transport specialist, she ran government affairs at General Motors before joining Airbus in 2004. Bennett also received an OBE for services to industry and charity in 2004.

 

 

28.
Mark Adams
Managing Director
Foresight Consulting

 

Former private secretary to John Major when he was Prime Minister, and after stints at two consultancies, Adams set up his own (Foresight) in 2001. But he took flak in 2006 over the hiring of a former defence minister while the agency was representing the Eurofighter jet project.

 

 

29.
Suzy Awford
Partner and Managing Director
DLA Piper Global Government Relations

 

Working with chairman Tim Clement-Jones, Awford runs an agency rated number one in Europe by one legal journal. A former parliamentary clerk, she is described by industry colleagues as smart, level-headed and refreshingly lacking in ego.

 

 

30.
Mike Craven
Partner
Lexington Communications

 

A graduate from the John Prescott school of politics, Craven has strong Labour connections cemented with a brief period as the party's chief media spokesperson in the late 1990s.

 

 

31.
DJ Collins
European Communications Director
Google

 

Collins is a former trade union comms chief and government press officer turned 'voice of Google'. Close to David Miliband, who is rumoured to want Collins as his director of communications if he becomes Prime Minister.

 

 

32.
Bob Keen
Director of Government Relations
BAE Systems

 

BAE may be a private company, but its importance to Britain's economy and national security means that relations with the government are both close and sensitive. A former MoD man, Keen took on the role of managing those relations in August last year.

 

 

33.
Edmund King
President
Automobile Association (AA)

 

The voice of the British motoring industry. King joined the AA from the RAC in January 2008, having worked for the British Road Federation before that. He recently argued successfully for the 'cash for bangers' scheme.

 

 

34.
Bernard Hughes
Head of Government Relations
ASDA

 

An experienced supermarket lobbyist, having also headed up public affairs at Tesco, Hughes has put up robust defence of cheap alcohol sales in supermarkets.

 

 

35.
Hugh Milward
UK Head of Public Affairs
McDonald's

 

Milward is the man who turned the 'McJobs' jibe into a badge of pride. A good PR man with a strong public affairs skill set, he is forceful, energetic and once worked for a Tory MP.

 

 

36.
David North
Community and Government Director
Tesco

 

North joined Tesco in 2001 from 10 Downing Street, where he had been Tony Blair's private secretary and a specialist in rural affairs. Trying to improve Tesco's green credentials and responding to attacks over alcohol marketing have been at the top of his agenda in recent years.

 

 

37.
Ron Bailey
Political Campaign Consultant
Various Organisations

 

An unusual lobbyist, Bailey came to the role not from PR or an MP's office but from direct action politics and the squatting movement. Working as consultant for a range of organisations in the environmental and democratic renewal sectors, he has a record second to none when it comes to getting private members' bills through Parliament.

 

 

38.
Ben Abbotts
Head of Public Affairs
Lansons

 

Young and personable, Abbotts is a lifelong Liberal Democrat who came within 700 votes of taking the Conservative seat of Bromley and Chislehurst in a 2006 by-election. He joined Lansons two years ago from FD-LLM.

 

 

39.
Doug Smith
Chairman
Westminster Advisers

 

A true lobbying legend, Doug Smith was inaugural chairman of the CIPR Government Affairs Group back in 1987 and will celebrate 50 years in the industry next year. Cheery, jovial, but still reckoned to be one of the shrewdest operators in the business, friends and associates agree that Smith is never to be underestimated.

 

 

40.
Andrew Scadding
Head of Public Affairs
BBC

 

Scadding is a former Conservative head of broadcasting, now faced with the task of convincing his old employers that the Beeb is not biased against them and that the value of the licence fee should be maintained.

 

 

41.
Steve John
Group Director of Corporate Affairs
Bupa

 

After three and a half years as corporate affairs director at Pepsi, John quit the food and drinks giant in April of this year to take on a global role at private healthcare providers Bupa. He co-wrote Public Affairs in Practice, one of the industry bibles.

 

 

42.
Neil Sherlock
Partner, Public Affairs
KPMG

 

Sherlock joined KPMG in 1985 as an economist and worked his way up to become a partner. In his spare time, Sherlock has provided counsel and speech contributions to successive Liberal Democrat leaders, from Paddy Ashdown to Nick Clegg. He is well connected in Labour circles too - he has written articles and a book with former Gordon Brown aide Neal Lawson. "He is well connected in Labour circles too - he has written articles and a book with former Gordon Brown aide Neal Lawson"

 

 

43.
Tanya Joseph
Managing Director, UK Public Affairs
Grayling

 

An experienced government press officer, having worked for both the Lord Chancellor and Prime Minister,  Joseph's clients include the States of Guernsey, the Royal Mint and the Nuffield Trust.

 

 

44.
David Wheeldon
Director of Policy and Public Affairs
BSkyB

 

Wheeldon is a former Liberal Democrat researcher who ran public affairs for the London Stock Exchange before leaving in October 2007 to become BSkyB's top lobbyist. He recently criticised the government for not paying enough attention to the role of pay-TV providers in providing public service content. Wheeldon is considered self-assured without being arrogant.

 

 

45.
Gavin Devine
Chief Operating Officer
Mandate

 

A former select committee clerk who moved into public affairs in 2004, Devine was head of Mandate's public affairs wing until promoted to his current role in February.

 

 

46.
Fraser Hardy
Senior Partner
Blue Rubicon

 

After stints running comms at mining giant Rio Tinto and Powergen, Hardy co-founded comms agency Blue Rubicon in 1999 with an old university friend. The agency is an increasingly prominent player in the public affairs sector.

 

 

47.
Audrey Nelson
Director, Public Affairs
CBI

 

An experienced operator, Nelson has been at the CBI since 1997. Previously she worked in government comms. The CBI's chief lobbyist is backed up by one of the biggest policy teams around - some 80 staff working full-time on the issues affecting business.

 

 

48.
Stephen Alambritis
Head of Public Affairs
Federation of Small Business

 

Alambritis has played a central role in raising the FSB's profile and challenging the CBI's traditional dominance in this sector. He is also a Labour councillor in Merton, south London, as well as being qualified as a referee with the Football Association.

 

 

49.
Daniel Murphy
Head of External Affairs
Remploy

 

Brighton-based Murphy is currently celebrating Remploy's selection to lead on the government's Flexible New Deal, a programme being launched this October to help all job-seekers, whatever their barriers to work. Well networked, Murphy is a former vice chair of the CIPR Government Affairs Group.

 

 

50.
Susan Eastoe
Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO
Edelman

 

After four years running Edelman's UK public affairs operation, Eastoe was promoted to deputy CEO of all firm's UK operations in 2007. However, she continues to be involved in the agency's public affairs work, alongside her broader role.

 

 

51-100

 

51. Claire Davidson
Managing Partner
Gardant

 

52. Martin Le Jeune
Founding Partner
Open Road

 

53. Madeleine Hallward
Head of Public Affairs
NESTA

 

54. Tim Fallon
Managing Director of Public Affairs
Hill & Knowlton

 

55. Kevin Shinkwin
Head of Public Affairs
Royal British Legion

 

56. Malcolm Gooderham
Director
The Ledbury Group

 

57. Jeremy Fern
Head of City Affairs
City of London Corporation

 

58. Simon Elliott
Managing Director
FD Public Affairs

 

59. Andrew Dunlop
Managing Director
Politics International

 

60. Cathy Heseltine
Marketing Director
Starbucks

 

61. Rhoda Macdonald
Managing Director
Burson-Marsteller

 

62. Rory O'Neill
Partner
Gardant

 

63. Tom Kelly
Communications Director
BAA

 

64. Stuart Thomson
Public Affairs Consultant
Bircham Dyson Bell

 

65. Huw Evans
Director of Corporate Affairs
Association of British Insurers

 

66. Mike Granatt
Partner
Luther Pendragon

 

67. James O'Keefe
Founding Partner
Tetra Strategy

 

68. Patrick South
Head of Public Affairs
Age Concern / Help the Aged

 

69. Martin Lord
Head of Government Relations
HSBC

 

70. Lucy Burns
Director and Head of Public Affairs
Fishburn Hedges

 

71. Alex Challoner
Managing Director
Cavendish Communications

 

72. Ian Beaumont
Director of Press PR and Public Affairs
Bowel Cancer UK

 

73. Mitchell Coen
Director of Government Relations
Barclays Capital

 

74. Mark Glover
Managing Director
Bellenden Public Affairs

 

75. Chris O'Keefe
Senior Manager of External Affairs
Toyota

 

76. Fiona Mason
Managing Director
Mandate

 

77. Peter Digger
Head of Government Relations and External Affairs
AstraZeneca

 

78. Darren Caplan
Director of Public Affairs
B2L Public Affairs

 

79. Richard Murphy
Senior Advisor
Tax Justice Network

 

80. Tony Ginty
Head of Public Affairs
Marks and Spencer

 

81. Aisling Burnand
Executive Director of Policy and Public Affairs

Cancer Research UK

 

82. Gavin Grant
UK Chairman
Burson-Marsteller

 

83. Richard Kaye
Head of Government Relations EMEA
J P Morgan

 

84. Michael Smyth
Partner and Head of Public Policy
Clifford Chance

 

85. Andrew Brown,
Brand Sustainability and External Communications Director
EDF

 

86. Myles Webber
Director of Corporate Affairs
GE

 

87. Geoff Cook
Chief Executive
Jersey Finance

 

88. Chris Sanger
National Head of Tax Policy Development
Ernst & Young

 

89. Leonie Austin
Director of Communications
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

 

90. John Whiting
Tax Policy Director
Chartered Institute of Taxation

 

91. Campbell Evans
Director of Government & Consumer Affairs
Scotch Whisky Association

 

92. Paddy Gillford
Founding Partner
Gardant

 

93. Helen Kennett
Head of Government Relations
Thales

 

94. Ben Summerskill
Chief Executive
Stonewall

 

95. Tony Halmos
Director of Public Relations
City of London Corporation

 

96. Simon Goldie
Policy and External Affairs Director
Association for Consultancy and Engineering

 

97. Chris Guyver
Managing Director
Quintus

 

98. Simon Buckby
Managing Director
Champollion

 

99. Chris Whitehouse
Managing Director
Whitehouse Consultancy

 

100. Sukey Cameron
UK Representative
Falkland Islands Government