Our 2017 Academy Speakers

Based in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, Alex is the most senior communications professional in the Civil Service. His role covers government communications strategy, management of the Cabinet Office and No.10 operation and leadership of the profession.

He was Director of Communications & Strategy at Westminster City Council, 2000-13. At Westminster he built a team that was recognised to be the best in local government and created a successful consultancy operation providing services to other organisations.

Before joining Westminster he held senior posts at Conservative Central Office, leading the Party’s Campaigns Unit from 1999-2000 and the Press Office between 1995 and 1999. He has trained politicians and officials in newly democratic states around the world in communications techniques.

He lives in Pimlico, London with his family.

As the Head of Campaigns for the Co-op she delivered campaigns with charity partners ranging from climate change and global poverty to women’s rights and community empowerment.

Pinky launched the Co-op's Global Poverty Ambassador campaign securing Bill Gates to launch the campaign at the London School of Economics. She also led a campaign to protect community energy projects which led to a change in the law with an amendment to the Energy Bill.

Pinky recently moved to the public sector and is currently the Head of Campaigns for the Prime Minister’s office, having spent 18 months with the Dept of Communities delivering the Government's priority behaviour change campaigns: Home Ownership, Northern Powerhouse & Devolution.

He has spearheaded a number of award winning campaigns with the aim of 'using social media, for social good', both in and outside of government.

In addition, his initiative to use Twitter data to help predict outbreaks of norovirus received the inaugural cross government data award, and remains a key tool for tracking and tackling its spread.

Jamie headed up social media for the Food Standards Agency, was the insights and analytics lead for the No.10 digital team, and now leads the GCS Local team in the north. Jamie has another life outside of government as a successful musician and artist, and is an official ambassador for the mental health charity C.A.L.M.

She is also the Council’s Executive Board Member for Economy and Culture and is playing a key role in attracting major national and international inward investment in to Leeds.

In July 2016 Cllr Blake was announced as Chair of the Core Cities Group. The Group represents the Councils of England’s eight largest city economies outside London, along with Glasgow and Cardiff. She is also Vice Chair of the LGA’s Environment, Economy, Housing & Transport Board.

Cllr Blake has been a Labour Councillor since 1996 and represents Middleton & Belle Isle in Leeds. Her time as a Councillor has seen her have responsibility for a wide range of portfolios including Planning, Education and Leisure. Cllr Blake currently chairs the Council’s Executive Board and has also served as a board member for NHS Leeds and the West Yorkshire Police Authority.

Previously a Special Adviser at No10 and DWP, Iain led the Government’s political media and communications planning between 2008 and 2010.

Since leaving Whitehall, he has been at the WPP agency Ogilvy Group, working on international accounts for public sector institutions and multinational corporations to provide strategic advice in media relations, crisis communications and branding.

At Ogilvy, Iain has led media relations and behaviour change projects for government agencies across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America as well as supporting multiple PR projects closer to home for the GREAT campaign.

Earlier in his career, Iain worked as a political researcher and press officer. He holds a BSc in Government from the London School of Economics.

He sets and drives the national communications strategy for UK policing in its work to protect the public from terrorism, through campaigns, internal communications, and strategic, media and digital engagement.

At times of crises, including all the recent attacks in the UK, he coordinates the national policing communications response and coordinates with HMG counterparts to ensure media and communications handling plans and messaging are joined up. Previously, Alastair was head of BME communications at the Prime Minister’s Press Office where he led on engagement with ethnic and specialist media, as well as coordinating x-HMG efforts to boost reach of announcements to more diverse audiences.

Before working at No10 Alastair was a senior information officer in the Metropolitan Police media and communications department, where he held a variety of portfolios including community engagement and local policing.

During this time he has helped develop a range of industry-leading digital interventions and tools for Change4Life and One You, helping millions of families and adults to start or sustain their own behaviour change journey, playing a pivotal role in protecting and improving the nation’s health.

I started my journalism career in the early 1990s with a local radio station on the south coast of England. I went on to work for the BBC, Sky News and Virgin Radio.

I spent three years as the group head of news for a large commercial broadcaster with responsibility for compliance, legal and training across 27 newsrooms and 60+ journalists.

I switched to PR and communications in 2008 when I was appointed to run the press office at Leeds City Council. I’ve since worked for four other councils, in the higher education sector and for the north west’s only FTSE100 company.

I’m now a director of my own PR, communications and broadcasting consultancy. I’m currently working back in local government as the head of communications for City of York Council.

I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations and Communications Association. I volunteer for the UK Hospital Broadcasting Association as national training manager and I’m the chair of trustees for a charity based in Leeds.

His portfolio includes some of the UK’s best-selling regional and local titles, including The Northern Echo, York Press and Bradford Telegraph & Argus.

David started his career in newspapers while still a student studying for his degree in Leicester. Having decided against pursuing a career in Education, David instead landed a job on his local paper and 28 years later he’s still in the same industry.

He was previously a Board Director of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and Chaired Bradford Cares, the Business in the Community organisation. During the course of his career David has launched several newspapers, numerous news websites and a portfolio of magazines.

His 21-year career in communications, marketing and PR spans 10 years as Head of Communications within local government, a director level role in the NHS and five years in private sector marketing.

A graduate in PR, and a multiple award-winner, Darren was named in the prestigious 'Digital Leaders 100' in both 2014 and 2016.

He has hosted and spoken at more than 100 events across the UK, Europe and the Middle East, on topics including integrating social media for business, building communications and engagement strategies, and communications strategies in a digital world.

Darren created the communications strategy for the multi award-winning Come Back to Nursing campaign, which attracted over 1,500 nurses back to the profession and saving the NHS £90million in the process. The campaign pulled off ‘Best Social Media Campaign’ at the UK Public Sector Communications Awards 2015 amongst others.

Darren provides communications consultancy and support to organisations, team and individuals across the UK, organises and delivers tailored in-house training and development, skills workshops, themed masterclasses and the unique annual UnAwards, now in their fourth year and which have become one of the largest industry awards in the UK.

A mentor to several communications managers in the UK he is passionate about sharing knowledge and learning as well as supporting communications colleagues across the industry. He is an associate member of both the Local Government Association and LGcommunications.

Say hello to him @darrencaveney and @comms2point0

email: darrencaveney@gmail.com

web: comms2point0.co.uk

For the past 18 years she has worked in senior communication roles within the police service and is currently responsible for Corporate Communications at Greater Manchester Police.

Initially, Amanda worked on local newspapers throughout the North West of England before moving into public relations working for a number of public sector organisations.

She has led the communication team at Greater Manchester Police during some challenging times including the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in May 2017, the murder of two police officers in 2012, August 2011 riots, death of the former Chief Constable and numerous counter terrorism investigations.

From 2009-2011, she led a political communications team at the Royal College of General Practitioners, influencing public health policy and managing relationships with politicians and government. This led to a senior role at the UK’s leading sight loss charity, Royal National Institute of Blind People, where she campaigned for the rights of blind and partially sighted people and commentated on sight loss issues in the national print and broadcast media.

Clara also worked as a Government Relations Games Maker at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She now works in the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office Communications and wrote the UK Government Communications Plan 2017/18.

Suzanne joined Centrica in 2010 to develop the external reputation for the growing oil and gas business and led an international team responsible for media, stakeholder engagement, digital and crisis communications across the UK and the Netherlands, Norway and Canada. Suzanne also developed and led a public campaign aimed re-engaging people in the energy debate.

Prior to joining Centrica, Suzanne worked for Shell’s global chemicals business on stakeholder relations and policy issues, including the European Energy and Climate Change Bill. Previous to that, she managed public affairs and media relations for the Advertising Association’s Food Advertising Unit during a time of heightened media attention and political scrutiny for the industry.

Having gained an Msc in European Policy from Bristol University, Suzanne began her career in the Cabinet Office’s Ministerial Support Team in 2004 after a short period providing events support for the Learning and Development Team.

She previously worked at the Ministry of Justice and was a journalist for regional and national press and the London 2012 Olympics.

After five years in local journalism, Chris moved into local government public relations, helping establish the country's newest and best council communications team at Newark and Sherwood District Council, winning the best District Communications Team at the LGComms Awards in 2009.

Chris joined the Civil Service in 2013 as a regional press officer for the Cabinet Office's Regional News Network, helping to manage regional press offices for the Health and Safety Executive and Highways England. Managing the media at high profile court cases on behalf of HSE (Mid Staffs hospitals), as well as media logistics for visiting royals and VIP events such as the G8 and NATO Summits, have developed Chris's broad experience of Government communications.

For the last two years, Chris has worked as a Regional Campaigns Manager for the Cabinet Office and Number 10, delivering low-cost digital and stakeholder engagement campaigns using video, digital and social media to achieve campaign objectives, from getting companies to export and publicising apprenticeships, to armed forces recruitment and helping young people get on the housing ladder, as well as engaging a broad range of local contacts and partners to gather valuable insight back to Number 10 on public opinion around Government policy.

Since arriving at DfE, she’s led on projects to strengthen the departments social media presence, delivered an IPA award winning campaign to encourage more people to ‘start their adoption story’ and successfully rolled out phase 2 of the government’s first national campaign to tackle child abuse.

Katie is passionate about low cost comms and is a firm believer in the power of partnerships. She is a member of the GCS early talent programme and outside of work is a busy mum of two who enjoys walking her Boston terrier, photography, music and a good brew!

Twitter: @thisisKFlo ; LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katieflorence

Email: Katie.florence@education.gov.uk

In 2016, she joined Chester West and Chester Council as a Communication Lead delivering against a breadth of campaigns that support the key outcomes described in the Council Plan.

More recently she has been working with Council colleagues on a major change project, which aims to transform the way Council employees work in the future and make a saving of £2.4 million by 2020.

He is currently Director of Communications at the UK Office for Rail and Road (ORR), the government department responsible for regulating Britain’s railways and major roads, and head of profession for internal communications for UK Government. He is also a board director of the voluntary “Engage for Success” movement for the advancement of employee engagement.

Russell’s previous positions include Group Director of Communications at the UK Government Department for Business; Head of Change and Internal Communications at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC);

Head of Internal Communications at the BBC; and Director of Communications at Royal Mail in London.

Russell has been a visiting Fellow at CASS Business School in the City of London, and is a Past International Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

He is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Last year he completed a Master’s thesis on the role of persuasion in positively affecting employee engagement. Now leading the 20 strong Communication team at Cheshire West and Chester Council, his ambition is to deliver best practice, audience-led and outcome focused strategic communication and engagement.

Transforming the role and delivery of internal communications projects is a priority, and the positive impact of this approach is being recognised and valued across the Council.

Prior to this he was publishing director for Trinity Mirror in the rural delights of North Wales where he was responsible for both the editorial and commercial teams... so he knows what it is like trying to sell digital advertising to people who don't even own computers.

Rob joined Trinity Mirror in 2001 and has worked in the local newspaper industry for 30 years.

She is based in Bristol and manages a team covering the South West, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Before joining the Civil Service Nicky worked for six years in the award-winning communications team at Westminster City Council, and has brought her experience of managing local authority comms campaigns to her current role making national policy real to everyone, through telling local stories and collaborating with local partners and stakeholders.

She was named by AdAge as one of Europe's twenty Women to Watch, and has previously been named as one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims, and specifically one of the UK’s 100 most powerful Muslim women.

She is the bestselling author of Love in a Headscarf, a memoir about growing up as a British Muslim woman. Her new book, Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World, is an exploration of rising group of global Muslims who believe that faith and modernity go hand in hand, and they are going to have a disproportionate influence on our future world.

She is an established commentator on Muslim social and religious trends, particularly around young Muslims and Muslim women, and writes for Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the National and the BBC.

Sarah heads up the Strategic Communications team at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, having previously led stakeholder engagement and ministerial visits teams at BEIS and DWP.

Sarah has a strong connection with local government, having led communications teams at both the Local Government Association and various regional bodies. She has worked across most communications disciplines, with a focus on strategic planning, insight and evaluation, stakeholder engagement and digital capability, and is a co-founder of LocalGovDigital.

She has also worked in the private and third sectors, including major science institutions, where she specialised in PR, digital, and knowledge and information management.

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sarahljennings Twitter: @LadyLeoLion

Before joining the Civil Service she worked as a TV, print and online journalist in the UK and Israel.

She’s a firm believer in the power of good human interest storytelling and has won several Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) awards for her work, including Best Writer and Best Feature.

Ben joined the GCS Local team in July 2017, having previously worked in campaigning roles for several national charities.

She has become a go-to for managers looking to improve performance, deliver successful change and build great teams.

Hayley started her career at the BBC, where she spent eight years working on all aspects of organisational psychology, with a particular focus on leadership and management development. Whilst at the BBC, she was part of the team that delivered the ground-breaking culture change programme instigated by Greg Dyke.

Prior to starting her own business in 2016, Hayley spent 11 years in local government. During this time she was a successful senior manager, delivering multi-million pound local services, including customer services and communications. During her time in local government Hayley received national recognition for her work around culture change and digital transformation.

Hayley is a respected lecturer in the UK and currently works at City University, Coventry University and Kingston University, supporting their Masters programmes in organisational psychology. Her specialist topics are leading organisational change; developing leaders and managers; and creating highperformance teams.

Hayley is a chartered psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Fellow of the RSA.

Fran is the lead on engagement and listening across all corporate and campaign digital channels at BEIS.

Kath MacLeod is the Head of External Communications for the Department of Communities and Local Government, with responsibility for all the department’s media, digital and marketing activity on key policy areas such as housing, local government and faith and integration. Her team led the cross government response to the Grenfell Tower fire, working with RBK&C and Gold to support those affected; and with landlords and councils to reassure tower block residents that their buildings were safe.

Before taking up her current role at the DCLG, Kath was a senior communications manager for the BBC, as Chief Press Officer in the BBC’s central press office and Head of Communications for its regulatory body the BBC Trust.

Originally from Portsmouth, Kath lives in Peckham with her husband and two children, Dexter and Martha.

Jamie specialises in evaluating campaigns and has track record of creating insightful marketing evaluation frameworks, measuring the return on investment for a diverse range of difficult to measure projects.

Jamie is thought to be one of the few people to work in the communications profession because they like maths!

He is a certified coach with 100s of hours of coaching experience and is passionate about the difference coaching can make to your working life.

Joe would like to introduce you to the world of coaching in this quick and interactive workshop.

This includes a regional network of marketers who provide expertise and advice and an online hub where you can access free resources.

Karen’s career has been devoted to central government communications and marketing across a wide range of departments including Health, Environment and the Home Office.

Sanjay Nazerali works with account teams to collect, nurture and explode ideas that deliver outstanding business value. He also co-ordinates our strategists around the world to ensure that we deliver original, ground-breaking insight and strategy for all our clients.

After graduating, Sanjay worked for Philip Gould and Peter Mandelson, developing the New Labour concept. Following an MBA at INSEAD, he was appointed Senior VP, Marketing, at MTV Europe. Sanjay then founded a Top 50 media insights agency, The Depot, before joining BBC News as Global Director of Marketing, Communications, and Audiences.

An unapologetic bleeding heart, Sanjay sits on 3 charity boards, including The Radio Academy and NAZ Project.

He has over 15 years’ experience in communications, having previously been a Senior Partner at Portland, a London-based communications consultancy, where he established and led its international team.

He has also served as a Director of Trade Out of Poverty, a campaign group dedicated to reducing barriers to trade.

Co-founder of Chrysalis Vision (TV drama). He was CEO of More Group plc and Clear Channel International. He was Chairman of Johnston Press, Future Publishing and Shakespeare’s Globe. He was Deputy Chairman of Clear Media (China), iTouch and Jazz FM; a founding Director of Internet Indirect plc and a director of Aegis, New Media Spark and WCRS.

He started his career as Assistant to Charles and Maurice Saatchi then was a broadcaster with BBC and ITV and a consultant at McKinsey& Co. He was an owner of the radio stations LBC and Jazz FM.

Roger was educated at the universities of Oxford (Jesus College) and Bristol; and is a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University. He was awarded a CBE for services to media. He is the author of five books including Ascent of Media and Delivering the Neural Nudge.

She is responsible for the Plan for Britain campaign to communicate the Government's plans for leaving the EU.

After the Grenfell Tower fire, she was seconded to GOLD command to lead communication and community engagement in the Grenfell Fire Response Team.

She has held a range of roles in Government including having responsibility for NHS and DH branding during the reorganisation of the health and social care system, running the Shared Parental Leave campaign in BIS, running working age communications in DWP and setting up the communications and engagement teams in the newly-created Healthwatch England.

Prior to coming into Government, she worked in local government and in the charitable sector, including at Mind, RNIB, Bliss and Contact a Family. She is the Vice Chair of DSUK, and a trustee of Back Up Trust.

He has editorial responsibility for the digital and print editions of The Northern Echo, which is one of the most respected regional daily newspaper titles in the country. He is also editor of the Echo’s weekly sister paper, the Darlington & Stockton Times, which recently celebrated its 170th anniversary, as well as a portfolio of weekly paid-for and free newspapers and niche publications.

Andy manages a team of about 60 reporters and production staff who report on breaking regional and national news and sport. The print titles serve audiences across the North-East and North Yorkshire six days a week. The digital audience is global and operates across multiple platforms 24/7.

Andy has been with Newsquest for 11 years. Prior to being appointed editor in 2016 Andy held roles including Business Editor and Senior Sportswriter. As a freelance writer he had articles published in most national newspapers.

He is also the course leader for the CIPR Specialist Diploma in Internal Communication delivered by PR Academy.

Andrew leads a small digital team which manages DCMS's social media output and strategies and prides itself on leading engaging campaigns at low and no-cost.

Before joining the department Tim was Deputy Editor and Director of Newsgathering for ITV News.

He has held a series of senior roles at ITV News, including Head of Foreign News, Westminster News Editor and Home and Foreign News Editor.He has covered a range of significant international and domestic stories during his career, including the 2003 Iraq War, the Kosovo conflict, the Asian Tsunami, and six general elections.

During his broadcast career, he has won a number of BAFTA awards for news coverage, an International Emmy, Royal Television Society awards for international and home news coverage, several One World Media Awards and a Broadcast Award.

Joy is a Campaigns Officer at BEIS with a specialism in delivering digital marketing for behaviour change campaigns.

She is responsible for leading external communications and campaigns for multiple audiences from the 45 million UK taxpayers and 5 million businesses; and for internal and change communications across our corporate community of over 60,000 staff.

Before that, Poli filled in as interim Director of Communications at the Department for International Trade (warming up the seat for Toby Orr!), and was previously the Head of Communications for Cabinet Office, joining the department in September 2015.

Poli has over 15 years’ experience working in central government communications, working across a number of departments including the Home Office, Defra and Department for Education and leading a broad range of campaigns, including on climate change, tax credits and the award-winning voter registration campaign.

Poli is Chair of the GCS Futures Council and an active member of the leadership community.

His work involves national and international funded projects including working with either large organisations and business, business leaders, professions or small to medium sized enterprises.

He recently led a €600K EU project on climate change using deliberative engagement. He has written and edited 26 books; published over 30 academic journal papers is President (2017-2020) of the European Public Relations Research and Education Association (EUPRERA).

Having previously worked in both journalism and digital marketing at the University of Sheffield, she joined the Civil Service in February this year.

As part of her role, she helps lead the GCS Local Digital Centre of Excellence.

She has spent eight years in government communications, including at the Home Office, DWP and Cabinet Office.

Prior to that she spent 10 years in the private sector - at BBC Worldwide and in a number of the UK's top PR agencies including Fishburn and Blue Rubicon, working with clients from BT and the Carbon Trust to GSK. She is a keen advocate of part-time working. @_SaraVogt

Previous roles include 5 years at Downing St as Head of Campaigns, where he co-authored the GCS Guide to Behaviour Change, and Head of Marketing stints at DCLG and DEFRA.

David has worked on issues as varied as recruitment to the Armed Forces, Superfast Broadband, Science and Engineering, Road Safety and many more.

Through GCS International, he has worked closely with NATO, and the governments of Ukraine and Georgia.

She joined the Civil Service in March of this year, and previously worked as a journalist and in marketing.

His experience covers the evaluation of communications, market and social research, consultation, and the use of big data. He has worked with a range of local and central government teams across the country.

He chairs LARIA (Local Area Research and Intelligence Association) which represents a whole range of researchers from the public and private sector trying to understand how to improve local lives and places. You can follow Neil on Twitter @neilwholey.

He was previously Director of the Centre for Public Relations Studies at Leeds Business School. Paul is a member of the Government's Future Communication Council and works with professional communicators across the public and private sectors.

He also teaches on the Government Communication Inspire programme and was the joint recipient of the National Communication Association PRIDE Award for outstanding contribution to public relations education.

Paul held a number of leadership and board level positions in the corporate communication sector before joining academia in 2008. He is also the co-author of Strategic Public Relations Leadership, a book which explores the key facets of leadership for communication professionals.

Prior to PHE, Charlie worked on Age UK’s brand partner websites and a range of e-learning products for Cambridge University Press.

Nick Golding has been Local Government Chronicle editor for four years, having been a reporter and news editor on the title earlier in his career. Nick, who has been a journalist for 17 years, has a passion for local politics and the decentralisation of power. His editorship has seen LGC follow a more digital path which has seen its subscription level increase. Under his leadership, LGC has undertaken landmark research revealing the clearest picture so far of how councils are winning devolved power. He has previously worked on Health Service Journal, the social care title Community Care and local newspapers.

Julia is Director of Policy, Performance and Communications at Westminster City Council. Her team works across policy, research, business intelligence, member services, change management, behaviour change, evaluation and digital communications to provide the council with a powerful blend of skills and experience capable of creating policies and behaviour change strategies that can help the council change lives for the better even in the most taxing of times.

Julia has worked for the City Council since 2000 and has developed sector leading campaigning methodology that combines a scientific approach with creative implementation. She is a leading practitioner in commercialising council services and assets and a founding director of Westco Trading Ltd a company that sells communications and strategic consultancy to the public and private sector.

Julia is driving thought leadership in the sector’s approach to meeting the emerging challenges facing councils during significant budget restrictions and changing demographics. She is developing thinking in new models of community engagement, changing relationships between citizen and state, ‘nudging’ behaviour to help manage down demand for services, introducing strategic digital and content management and working with government to pilot policy resulting from devolution.

Jo has been Chief Executive of Doncaster Council since 2012.

Jo studied Law at the University of Southampton and began her career as a lawyer, working predominantly in the public sector, although she spent some time as a partner in private practice.

After starting her career as a trainee solicitor in Nottingham, and progressing to different roles there, Jo moved on to a number of legal posts in Merseyside majoring in housing, regeneration and capital investment schemes. After Heads of Legal Service roles, Jo took a wider brief at Knowsley Council as Executive Director to lead on corporate resources and service transformation. This was followed by a stint as Deputy Chief Executive at Bradford with a strong focus on partnerships and cohesion. Jo has undertaken a number of roles in the voluntary sector and was chair of a large Registered Social Landlord in the North West.

Prior to joining Doncaster, Jo was Deputy Chief Executive at The Local Government Association, responsible for policy, communications and sector led improvement, which included a four month secondment to Doncaster at the Government’s request.

Since arriving in Doncaster Jo has worked alongside Mayor Jones to lead the council out of government intervention ahead of schedule and has led major financial / cultural / economic change programmes which have significantly improved Doncaster’s position. Jo is lead for Skills and Devolution Governance and is a Governor of the National College for High Speed Rail which has campuses in both Doncaster and Birmingham.

Jo is also the current President of Solace, (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives). A role to which Jo was elected by her peers and is very honoured to hold. Being Solace President allows Jo the opportunity to champion causes for all Local Authority Chief Executives at a Nation level.

Rob Irvine has been editor-in-chief of the Manchester Evening News, the MEN Media weeklies and the Huddersfield Examiner since April 2012.

Prior to this he was publishing director for Trinity Mirror in the rural delights of North Wales where he was responsible for both the editorial and commercial teams... so he knows what it is like trying to sell digital advertising to people who don't even own computers.

Rob joined Trinity Mirror in 2001 and has worked in the local newspaper industry for 30 years.

Claire has more than 15 years experience working in communications across the NHS and local government. Since 2015 she has been leading the communications and engagement programme for the £6bn health and social care devolution deal in Greater Manchester, working with the 40 councils, NHS organisations, police, fire and voluntary sector in the partnership to delivery the five year strategy to transform health. In April 2017 Claire also took responsibility for the newly formed Greater Manchester Combined Authority comms team, which incorporates the Mayor's office, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and manages communications for the leaders of the ten local authorities in respect of their regional portfolios.

Andy Allsopp is Head of Communications and Marketing at Essex County Council.

A former newspaper journalist, he began his communications career in the NHS before moving on to Age Concern England where he was the charity’s national Media Relations Manager.

He has led award-winning communications teams in Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, London and Essex, and is a member of the LG Communications Executive Committee.

Andy is passionate about running, his family, travel, football and the Netherlands, but not that order. He blogs at www.dutchfootballtrip.com

Dave manages Granicus Europe. His team is currently supporting over 150 major UK and European public bodies to connect, inform, and engage nearly 11 million citizens in the UK and with over 150 million users worldwide. Granicus provides innovative digital communications solutions designed specifically to help governments reach more people and prompt them to take decisive action.

Dave is an experienced digital transformation consultant and specialises in the application of digital engagement and communication technologies which empower change by helping public sector organisations build safe, sustainable, healthy and digitally connected communities.

Mark Fletcher-Brown is a director of Reputation Counsel, a communication consultancy. He has been a journalist, columnist and university lecturer and has written extensively about communication management in articles and books. He has worked with over 70 public sector organisations in local government, health, housing and national bodies, held eight director of communication roles, and has lectured on communication in the UK, Cyprus and at Moscow State University.

Jen Green is Head of Strategic Marketing for Manchester City Council.

She is a highly experienced communications professional who has built and led the strategic communications and marketing functions, moving Manchester from a traditional marketing approach to an engagement and campaign model.

She has held a variety of roles at Manchester City Council, including Head of Digital City Strategy and Head of Customer and Community Engagement, previously supporting the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), now the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Now responsible for Manchester's strategic communications, Jen heads a full in-house communications service with creative design, marketing, media, news, digital production and content creation, print, mail, AV and event management, with translations and interpretation including a commercial arm servicing a number of public sector organisations.

Jen has been on the top in-house communicators list at Prolific North for the last two years.

Roger is Director of Engagement and Communications for Health System Transformation at NHS England.

He and his team help the NHS nationally and locally to communicate about how care needs to adapt to meet the needs of the public.

Previously Roger was NHS England’s Head of Media and Public Affairs where he helped the NHS set out a new direction for healthcare - key moments included publication of the NHS Five Year Forward View and strategies for urgent care, general practice, cancer and mental health.

Prior to this he was Head of Communications at the NHS Confederation where he campaigned to shape the 2012 Health and Social Care Act that established the current NHS system. He was also Head of External Affairs at what is now the Care Quality Commission, leading communications on influential investigations including at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Prior to this, Roger was the lead spokesman for British business as Head of News for the Confederation of British Industry. He started his NHS career working for trusts and health authorities, in particular the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust. His career in communications and campaigning started with Oxfam during the refugee crisis in Rwanda.

Anastasia Knox is a Research Director at BritainThinks where she leads on their health work. Anastasia works regularly with clients ranging from multinational corporations through to third sector organisations, helping them put the people that matter most to their organisations at the heart of their thinking. Recently, this has included work for Alzheimer’s Research UK, NHS England and Abbott.

John McTernan is Senior Vice President and Head of International Political, based in London.

A highly regarded strategist, John’s focus is expanding PSB’s political campaign management and polling work around the world and providing public affairs and political analysis to PSB’s corporate clients as needed.

Prior to joining PSB, John was a columnist and writer for The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times and The Times. An experienced political strategist, he was formerly Director of Political Operations for the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair; Director of Communications for Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard; and Chief of Staff to Scottish Labour Party Leader Jim Murphy. John has worked on numerous campaigns across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he was Thinker in Residence for the Government of South Australia and Head of Policy for the Scottish Government.

John has appeared frequently in the media, including on the BBC and Sky News, as well as served as a commentator for a wide range of newspapers.

Simon is Director of Communications at ‎NHS England.Simon enjoys using the skills learned in nearly two decades at the BBC to help influence audiences and inspire change to improve health care in England.

He is passionate about the NHS and keen to ensure it is accurately represented in the media, to parliament, and with key partners. He is also determined that NHS staff get the recognition they deserve for their commitment to providing diligent care, on the basis of need and not ability to pay.

Simon leads a team providing all round communication support for NHS England - press, public affairs, publishing, parliamentary briefing, marketing, brand management, events including the annual Innovation Expo conference, bulletins, campaigns, strategic communication and Freedom of Information.

Head of Customer and Communications at Buckinghamshire County Council/NHS Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Sophie led the creation of a shared communications and engagement service for the council and the two local clinical commissioning groups, bringing together experienced NHS and local gov communications people - now up and running for just over 12 months. The very first thing that landed on her desk as a newly merged team was the STP.

Sophie works closely with the local NHS hospital and community trust and mental health trust, and they have learned a huge amount from each other – relationships which have been vital in light of more recent developments i.e. the Buckinghamshire Accountable Care System.

Sophie previously held a number of senior communications roles in central government, including at the Department of Health, where I led public health social marketing campaigns on alcohol, smoking, drugs and sexual health, co-ordinated the communications response to pandemic flu, and worked on NHS reform; and before that, roles at the European Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Trade and Industry and Jobcentre Plus. Started my comms career at a high tech PR agency and have more recent private sector experience in marketing for an internet start-up.

Julie is Head of Communications and Engagement NHS North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, and West, North and East Cumbria STP Communications Lead.

Julie‘s introduction to the NHS was working on the West, North and East Cumbria Success Regime which led to the and the Healthcare For The Future consultation which considered change in six clinical areas in 2016. The health and care system in north Cumbria is now developing a much more integrated approach, and Julie is helping to build co-production as the way to develop service change and improvement. Prior to joining the NHS she spent 15 years with the BBC.