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6/2/2014 Revealed: The City’s most influential financial PRs | City A.M.
http://www.cityam.com/article/revealed-city-s-most-influential-financial-prs 1/10
Thursday 06 February 2014BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY
Revealed: The City’s most influential financialPRs
by David Hellier
March 8, 2013, 1:49am
Roland Rudd triumphs in City A.M’s poll of top journalists
Roland Rudd, the senior partner and co-founder of RLM Finsbury has been voted the City’s
most influential public relations executive for the third time in a row by a poll of city editors
and senior business jounalists interviewed by City A.M.
Rudd, whose firm advises 22 FTSE 100 companies including Glencore and Sainsbury, has
recently stepped in to counsel Starbucks on its UK tax issues and Bumi on its controversial
and passionate investor battle against Nat Rothschild, a former client. Rudd scored 41
points out of a possible 75.
Rudd beat Alan Parker, Brunswick’s supremo, into second place, the same ranking as when
we last did a poll. Parker, arguably the originator of the modern financial public relations
business, has been busy growing Brunswick into a global player. But he is still a power
player in London where Brunswick enjoys a leading position. Parker gained 28 points.
Rudd’s continued pre-eminence in a poll of London journalists no doubt reflects his
enormous appetite for networking. His 50th birthday party a couple of years ago at his
home in Somerset was attended by a Who’s Who list of business leaders and business
journalists from the City, including James Murdoch, Sir Roger Carr, and Lord Rothermere.
A recent merger with the New York-based RLM has not significantly diverted Rudd’s London
focus.
In third place is Andrew Grant, the founder of Tulchan, who is catching up with the first two
in terms of points scored.
Grant has been in the news lately for losing the Marks & Spencer account after an eight-
year period after a leak ahead of the retailer’s recent annual results. That set-back, though,
should not overshadow the progress the group has made, with clients now including Lloyds
Bank, Standard Life, Rexam and Petrofac. Grant has positioned the firm as a capital market
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6/2/2014 Revealed: The City’s most influential financial PRs | City A.M.
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communicator and has deliberately not gone down the more political, public affairs route
chosen by some of his rivals.
In our last poll, now nearly five years ago, Lady (Patience) Wheatcroft, then city editor of
the Times, said that “whenever [she] knew Roland Rudd or Alan Parker were on the phone,
she knew it was worth taking”. If she was still in journalism today, it seems highly plausible
that Grant would now be afforded similar weighting.
Other big beasts of the public relations world to feature in our poll include Neil Bennett of
Maitland in fourth place, just six points behind Grant. Bennett, a former city editor at the
Sunday Telegraph, now boasts a number of heavyweight clients including Vodafone,
Standard Chartered,Wonga and Schroders. He is also City A.M.’s wine critic.
An in-house public relations man comes in at fifth place, Stephen Doherty, of Barclays Bank.
While in-house public relations execs are rarely deemed as influential as the agency
equivalents, who speak for many different clients, Doherty’s presence on the list is indicative
of the tough year that Barclays has had as well as the undoubted respect he clearly
cultivates amongst some senior journalists.
Rory Godson, another former journalist and the founder of Powerscourt, comes in at sixth
place.
The top six on our list are stand outs in terms of votes they received, and there are then a
number of pr executives who got single or a couple of votes.
So we have included a separate list to mention everyone that was voted for.
Notably, just one woman – Shakila Ahmed of Travelodge – was nominated by our panel
members, despite the fact that financial public relations agencies tend to take on women in
healthy numbers.
The industry will be hoping that this changes in the years ahead.
1 Roland Rudd, RLM Finsbury
Roland Rudd has won the City A.M. poll of financial journalists for the third time in
succession. Rudd, a former journalist and the son of a City stockbroker, has developed
over the years a vast network of business leaders, bankers and politicians. His energy for
contact-building and networking knows no bounds.
The company he founded, Finsbury, has since been absorbed into Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP
Group, and more recently merged with US partner RLM.
Clients include Centrica, RBS, Glencore, BSkyB and Sainsbury.
Rudd is also chairman of Britain for New Europe, a pro-EU lobbying group.
Points total 41.
2 Alan Parker, Brunswick
Alan Parker was the doyen of financial public relations executives in London before Roland
Rudd set up Finsbury in the 1990s. He has built Brunswick into a truly international firm and
as a consequence is less focused on London. Despite that, financial journalists still rate him
highly and it is no surprise he has been hard to dislodge from second place in our poll.
Points total 28.
6/2/2014 Revealed: The City’s most influential financial PRs | City A.M.
http://www.cityam.com/article/revealed-city-s-most-influential-financial-prs 3/10
3 Andrew Grant, Tulchan
Andrew Grant has significantly improved his approval rating with business journalists since
our last poll, despite his firm recently losing the Marks & Spencer account. Grant is a former
Brunswick star who left to set up his own agency, Tulchan, which is now in third place for
FTSE 100 clients behind Brunswick and RLM Finsbury.
Points total 20.
4 Neil Bennett, Maitland
Neil Bennett has been Maitland’s chief executive since 2010. He joined from Gavin Anderson
as managing partner in 2004, and leads a number of the firm’s accounts. Prior to that, he
spent 18 years as an editor, columnist, broadcaster and journalist, including seven as the
city editor of the Sunday Telegraph and he was a member of the Telegraph’s management
board.
Points total 14.
5 Stephen Doherty, Barclays
Stephen Doherty leads Barclays’ corporate comms, having joined from Diageo last year. His
appointment was seen as a reflection of the bank’s desire to provide a robust voice in the
high-profile regulatory debates around the global financial services industry. With Barclays
embroiled in both the Libor and PPI scandals, he couldn’t have chosen a more challenging
role.
Points total 9.
Doherty is currently director of comms at Diageo, having joined the UK drinks giant in 2007.
Prior to Diageo, he spent four years at Cohn & Wolf, rising to the position of MD, corporate
affairs and chief operating officer for London. He has also had stints at Weber Shandwick
and Edelman.
6 Rory Godson, Powerscourt
Rory Godson’s Powerscourt is fast becoming one of the go-to agencies for crisis PR. It
advised BP on the Gulf spill and News Corporation on the consequences of the phone-
hacking scandal. When Nat Rothschild needed a new adviser after picking a fight with the
board of Bumi he went to Godson’s Powerscourt. Initially focused on Irish clients,
Powerscourt is far more mainstream now. Points total 7.
Also mentioned (in no particular order)
Tim Burt Stockwell
Nick Miles Ex-M:Communications
Guy Lamming RLM Finsbury
Matthew Freud Freud Communications
Chris Barrie Citigate
Tim Allan Portland
James Henderson Pelham Bell Pottinger
6/2/2014 Revealed: The City’s most influential financial PRs | City A.M.
http://www.cityam.com/article/revealed-city-s-most-influential-financial-prs 4/10
David Yelland Brunswick
Ed Bridges FTI
Nick Cosgrove Brunswick
Giles Croot Barclays
Mike Smith Brunswick
Michael Sandler Hudson Sandler
Shakila Ahmed Travelodge
Richard Edelman Edelman
Anthony Carlisle Citigate
Andrew Lorenz FTI
Iain Anderson Cicero
Phillip Gawith Stockwell
Matt Ridsdale Tavistock
Patrick Donovan Citigate
Charles Naylor HSBC
Richard Jacques Brunswick
Mark Gallaher Pagefield
Ruban Yogarajah BHP Billiton
Paul McManus Walbrook
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