Public Relations is a vibrant and exciting profession attracting many young practitioners into a diverse range of roles across all sectors, nationally and regionally. As the leading voice of the PR profession, the CIPR is committed to ensuring that it fully represents all practitioners. Young PR practitioners are tomorrow's leaders and will shape the direction and evolution of the profession. As such, the CIPR is developing a Future Leaders Forum to ensure that young professionals are heard and engage with PR policy and professional development and importantly, act as a connector and engager with other young practitioners in their region.
Objectives
The Future Leaders Forum will:
- bring together young practitioners to ensure that their voice is represented at all levels of the CIPR to inform policy and developments
- ensure that young communicators understand the importance of professional development and a code of conduct
- nurture tomorrow's leaders of the PR profession and the CIPR.
See the press release for further information.
Who?
The Forum is designed to represent the voices of PR practitioners under the age of 30. Leading young PR professionals were invited to become part of the Forum and act as ambassadors, mentors and representatives for other young PR practitioners, as well as inputting into our own plans. The group will be made up of CIPR Excellence and PRide Young Communicator award winners.
The forum members are:
Tim Borrett MCIPR, Teignbridge District Council (West of England)
Tim is Acting Service Manager for Media and Communications at Teignbridge District Council in south Devon. Since joining the council in his first PR position in December 2006, Tim worked his way up the ranks and currently manages the service, providing maternity cover for its full time manager.
The Teignbridge Media and Communications team won the CIPR Local Public Services Group 'Communicators of the Year (Small Team)' award in its Excellence in Communications Awards 2009, along with 'Best External Magazine (under 60k circulation)'.
Individually Tim has won the Local Government Young Thinker of the Year competition in 2007, the CIPR LPS Group 'Young Communicator of the Year' in 2009 and the South West CIPR PRide 'Outstanding Young Communicator' award, also in 2009. This year he was a finalist for the LGcommunications 'Next Generation' award.
Educated at Bournemouth University, Tim holds a BA (Hons) in Multi Media Journalism, an MA in Television Production, and the CIPR Diploma.
Rebecca Douglas MCIPR, MCG PR (Yorkshire & Lincolnshire)
Rebecca has worked in PR for ten years in a mixture of in house and agency roles for the likes of Midlands Co-op, Leisure Connection and most recent agency – MCG PR, where she is currently Associate Director. She works between their London and Leeds offices and heads up a number of accounts from specialist B2B accounts to consumer brands and regional campaigns.
She won Young Communicator of the Year 2009/2010 for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire region at last year's PRide awards.
Read an interview with Rebecca about her background and the Future Leaders Forum.
Helen Rudd ACIPR, Project PR (East Anglia)
Helen started her career in PR 5 years ago after finishing university with a degree in History. She began working in-house for the UK's largest port, dealing with media relations, internal communications, and stakeholder liaison. She left after 3 years to try agency work, and at Project PR she has enjoyed three promotions in 2 years culminating in the most recent to Account Director. She currently looks after 10 clients and is the public sector specialist in the company, as well as having responsibility for business development and pitching. At the 2009 CIPR PRide Awards, Helen won the prestigious Outstanding Young Communicator Award for East Anglia.
Jessica Terrell MCIPR, Central Office of Information (Greater London)
Jessica Terrell is a Client Director for the Central Office of Information's (COI) News & PR division, leading PR strategy and News handling across Business and Justice themes.
In 2008, at the age of 26 Jessica became COI's youngest ever Regional Director. Leading a team of 22 people she directed a range of campaigns from Army recruitment to smoking cessation.
Jessica also led the media handling for the Jean Charles de Menezes Inquest and now provides advice on a range of high profile Public Inquiries and sensitive news issues. Jessica is a Member of the CIPR and the winner of the Outstanding Young Communicator Award (2010).
Anna Rogerson ACIPR, Firefly Communications (Scotland)
Anna Rogerson is an account director with Firefly Communications in Edinburgh and has over seven years experience in PR. Specialising mainly in B2B, technology and public sector PR, Anna works across both UK-wide and Scottish campaigns. She has extensive experience in launching new companies and products, establishing clients in new markets and successfully steering others through major mergers and acquisitions. Her current role involves the development of campaign strategy and overseeing the day-to-day management and execution of PR programmes across her client portfolio. Versatile and creative in her approach to PR, Anna excels in proactive issues-based techniques. She was a finalist in the 2009 Corporate Comms Young Achiever Award and won Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year at the 2009 CIPR Scotland PRide Awards.
Craig Peters ACIPR, Osprey PR (Home Counties South)
After gaining a recognised qualification in PR, journalism and marketing at Hove College, Craig went on to work at the press office for the BBC and Eastenders. Prior to this, he had spent a year out travelling the world visiting every continent on the way.
Following the BBC he went on to work for Brighton-based agency Midnight Communications where he was part of the company's very successful B2B team. Here he worked on and managed accounts which included a law firm, asset based financiers, financial claims specialists, energy consultants and HR experts. Craig's infectious enthusiasm for PR was rewarded in October 2009 when he won the prestigious CIPR Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year award.
With the award under his belt Craig has now started his own business, Osprey PR, which is based in Worthing, West. Sussex. He plans to build a consultancy that strictly focuses on B2B and Sports PR.
Kelly O'Hanlon, Willoughby PR (Midlands)
Having started at Willoughby PR in 2005 as a junior account executive fresh from Birmingham City University (then UCE), Kelly is now an account director within the home division working across a broad spectrum of accounts. From leading furniture specialists Moben, Sharps and Dolphin and heading up this year's PR programme with renowned interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen to contact floors, Danish pastries and even promoting polyurethane resins to the Asian press, her role is extremely varied and presents different challenges every day.
Results-driven and an ambassador for demonstrating the value of PR to clients at every opportunity, she prides herself on her working relationships whilst outside of her company role, she still has close links to Birmingham City University. She has given several guest lectures on professionalism and has been involved in various student assessments and mentor schemes as she firmly believes in supporting the next generation of PR professionals.
Sara Young MCIPR, Children's Commissioner for Wales (Wales)
Sara is the Communications Officer for the Children's Commissioner for Wales. As a member of the organisation's Management Team, she leads on all external and internal communications.
Before joining the Commissioner's office in 2008 Sara worked at the award-winning Cardiff-based agency Golley Slater PR managing a number of national consumer and public sector clients.
She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a Cardiff University School of Journalism graduate and holds a postgraduate diploma in public and media relations. Sara was named Outstanding Young Communicator at the 2009 CIPR PRide Cymru Awards.
Michelle Harris ACIPR (Wessex)
In 2004 Michelle graduated from Bournemouth University's Public Relations degree and started work as a communications assistant at Chichester District Council.
After two and a half years she joined Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust where her roles have included writing the hospital's magazine, media relations and internal communications. She is currently a communications manager at the trust, responsible for the intranet and patient information.
Michelle sits on CIPR Wessex's committee, as student rep liaison, and is also a local representative for the national charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Charlotte Robertson
Charlotte is an Account Executive at Brunswick Group, an international corporate relations and communications consultancy. At Brunswick, Charlotte works across a wide range of practices and sector disciplines, undertaking a full range of assignments, from long-term programmes to short-term projects and crisis management
Charlotte joined Brunswick in 2009 having completed an intense training course as part of the award winning PR Internship Programme, created by Taylor Bennett in association with Brunswick. The Programme, which she now helps co-ordinate, is designed for talented black minority ethnic graduates who want to peruse a career in communications.
Charlotte graduated from the University of East London where she gained a BA (hons) in Journalism and Media.
Heather Price, R&R Music (London/Nottingham )
Heather is Head of PR and Communications at R&R Music. Since graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University with an honours degree in PR in 2005, Heather has built a successful career in the PR industry, working her way through the ranks at agencies including Golley Slater, SKV Communications and Staniforth, for both consumer and B2B clients in music, food, tourism, property, business, finance and law. In 2010, Heather made the jump to in-house PR with R&R Music, a London-based record/management label.
Heather was crowned CIPR NW Outstanding Young Communicator in 2009.
Kerrie Crammond, Rowntree Gordo (North East)
Kerrie is currently on maternity leave.
Angela Hunter ACIPR (Northern Ireland)
Representative for Thames & Chiltern TBA
Further information
For further information, contact AndrewR@cipr.co.uk.
