PR is a means to an end. The end is the business.

Businesses create wealth for the courageous people who start them. They create jobs that let people live better lives. They generate the taxes governments need to fund public services. They create products and services that people value. And sometimes they can change the world for the better.

My real interest in business started at school with a GCSE in British Industrial Society. We would watch shaky VHS recordings of the BBC’s 1980s Troubleshooter series, fronted by Sir John Harvey-Jones, respected for his turnaround of chemicals giant ICI. He would go into a struggling business and offer advice on how to turn things around. I was inspired. I went on to do a business degree, and I think the business-outcome-centric approach I have always taken to PR is down to those programmes.

Working up from intern at the BPI, I became the lead spokesperson for the British recorded music business. I went there as a graduate who wanted to learn how to start a record label. I ended up in PR. That built a personal media brand that resulted in 100+ media appearances, including a grilling from Jon Snow on Channel 4 News, appearances on the BBC Breakfast and This Morning couches, dozens of talking-head TV soundbites, and radio interviews on the 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 & 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, delivering hundreds of pieces of coverage for over fifty different clients, all small firms punching above their weight.

So I have worked in-house, running departments; in agencies at director level; as a company founder; and independently as a consultant.