Previous Awards - 2008

European Consultancy of the Year

GPlus Europe

GPlus continues to grow, hiring 20 new staff in 2007, thanks to continued success attracting prestigious and stimulating clients. Numbering 50 consultants, GPlus continues to work successfully on some of the largest public affairs campaigns in Brussels. These include: advising Gazprom on EU energy liberalisation, working with Microsoft to engage with the Commission and Brussels-based media, and supporting Toyota's efforts to lead on environmental sustainability. In 2007, GPlus helped two clients achieve outstanding results: A French insulation manufacturer, threatened by obscure EU legislation, faced a situation where its market would literally disappear. GPlus helped the client make its case with key EU actors, managing to stave off the threat. In 2007, GPlus helped Russia tell its story amid rising international tensions. Clients such as Microsoft, Aviva, RBS and BHP Billiton have been with GPlus for many years. In 2007, GPlus won 23 new clients in telecommunications, IP, ICT, VC, raw materials, creative content. The firm offers a unique and innovative working environment, with an open management structure and no formal practice groups. Opportunities include mentoring and bonus schemes, a focus on improving individual/team skills, and involving all staff in recruitment. Staff can also make their case for working on desired accounts. Consequently, staff retention is exceptionally high by industry standards.

European Consultant of the Year

Mark Dober - APCO Europe

As the firm’s first employee in Europe, Mark Dober set up APCO’s Brussels office in 1995. Since then, APCO has grown into a profitable 150-person strong organisation, with 11 offices across diverse geographies. He has wide experience in EU healthcare policy and has represented numerous companies and associations in this sector. In 2007, he led APCO’s team to win a string of new clients including Novartis, Guerbet, Roche, Biogen and Solvay. Outside healthcare, in 2007, Mark helped the Madagascan government communicate its unique development challenges to European policymakers, and secure substantial EU and multilateral support for the Madagascar Action Plan. Mark ingeniously came up with a new name - BusinessEurope - for the organisation formerly known as UNICE, which represents 39 of Europe’s largest industry groups, including the CBI.

Beyond his client-facing and new business roles, Mark is a steady hand in the European management team at APCO, providing advice and mentoring. Mark led a semester on issues management in a Masters in Strategic Communications at Brussels IHECS University. He also developed a seminar and manual to help European Patient Groups communicate more effectively with EU institutions. He has written a number of articles on EU affairs, while actively promoting knowledge-sharing among colleagues and personally runs sessions on subjects as diverse as reputation management and self-defence.

European In-House Professional Of The Year

Erik Jonnaert - Procter & Gamble

The Belgian national is one of the best-connected PA professionals in Brussels. Jonnaert has given a lifetime’s service to Procter & Gamble, having joined the company in the mid-80s. He told Public Affairs News in January 2008 that he ‘invented PR and PA in P&G Belgium’.

Since those days he has risen up the ranks and rounded off 2007 by gaining V-P status, taking the title of V-P external relations western Europe. He oversees five departments – 120 staff in total.

A strong advocate of best practice and a trained lawyer, Jonnaert is also active in a host of associations, for example as a board member of the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP), where he is an influential voice.

Erik Jonnaert is to relocate in the summer of 2008 to Singapore, in the same role as his current one but covering the Asian region.

Newcomer Of The Year

Craig Jones – 4Children

Craig Jones began his public affairs career at national children’s charity 4Children in September 2006, making the transition from arguing legal briefs to arguing campaigns for social change. Craig’s achievements have included leading on the negotiation and management of three presentations to the prime minister and senior cabinet ministers at Number 10 to give young people a voice.

Supporting evidence for the campaign was collected through a year-long national road show consultation of 16,000 families to, for the first time, give Britain’s teenagers a hotline to policymakers. A key theme raised by young people was a lack of places to go in their community and after-school activities. To launch interim findings, Craig led 30 teenagers wearing hoodies saying ‘Tell Us Where to Go’ to present the report to the prime minister.

Co-ordinating a lobby of MPs for and negotiations with senior Treasury and DCSF officials, Craig helped to shape the details of the 10 Year Children’s Plan and DCSF CSR settlement. The campaign exceeded all targets within its 12-month timescale. Results included £100m of new funding to transform the offer to young people and crucially, a quarter of all spending would be decided by teenagers themselves. Craig devised and managed a final event during which young people joined cabinet members in Downing Street, alongside the PM, to discuss the themes and implications of Craig’s report.

New Consultancy Of The Year

Open Road

Our four directors have over 80 years’ experience covering PA, corporate communications and CSR. Our clients include major companies - Sky, HSBC, Orange, Unilever - leading trade associations like the BPI and the Bingo Association - and new companies like Streetcar, Horsesmouth.co.uk and Silverjet, and turnover exceeds £650,000, projected to reach £1m in by 2009. Each employee has a dedicated career manager, receives extensive training and development as well as a bonus and extensive benefits.

Client highlights include organising a reception at No10 for the social networking website Horsesmouth.co.uk - one of the first events in Downing Street after Gordon Brown took over as PM. We also completed a comprehensive lobbying programme for the Bingo Association highlighting the unfairness of the present tax regime. And we helped to launch HSBC’s Climate Partnership in the UK and have taken it to political audiences securing positive mentions of the initiative in speeches by George Osborne and Nick Clegg.

As for the future - we currently have 15 new business opportunities to focus on, most of which have come from personal recommendations. We will continue to use our website and blog to generate interest and attention and we are developing a programme of speaker events including editors, politicians, advisers and regulators.

Politician Of The Year

Vince Cable MP

Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson and MP for Twickenham, Vince Cable has had a terrific year. As stand-in leader for the Liberal Democrats in 2007, he landed some impressive personal blows on the prime minister, particularly with his memorable “From Stalin to Mr Bean” jibe.

What’s more, Vince has firmly established himself as a credible and authoritative voice on all Treasury-related issues. He deftly used his temporary leadership of the Liberal Democrats and his subsequently increased profile to hold the government to account over the Northern Rock crisis, and was the first to champion nationalization of the bank when even the Treasury refused to countenance such a move.

He has brought the UK’s personal debt crisis to the foreground of the political agenda at a time when the credit crunch is hitting purse strings. For a third party that has for so long lacked credibility on economic issues, he is beginning to change voter perceptions with his combination of expertise, credibility and popular, damning put-downs.

Political Journalist Of The Year

Polly Toynbee - The Guardian

Always polarising, and often influential, she never lashes out but isn’t afraid to criticise. She has already delivered some harsh criticism to Gordon Brown this year, probably at a time he was at his lowest and it annoyed him most. And yet she is equally ready to write a positive piece (rare in a political journalist)!

Most importantly she sets the agenda for debate around religion and the state with regards to education, the family institution or international relations. Whether you agree with her or not, her well informed and well argued articles are a must read for anyone contemplating embarking on a discussion of Britain’s lack of confidence in its own identity.

Toynbee has backed up her writings on the poor and underprivileged by working as a nursery assistant, a call-centre employee, a hospital porter, a dinnerlady, a factory worker and a care home assistant while researching a book on low paid jobs in the UK.

While she is vilified by the right as the embodiment of nannying middle-class New Labour metropolitanism, many on the left see her writings as the expression of what a Labour government of their dreams may have looked like.

Voluntary Sector Public Affairs Campaign Of The Year

Liberty

‘Charge or Release' is Liberty’s campaign against extension of pre-charge detention for terror suspects beyond the current limit of 28 days. Liberty is only nine months into this campaign and many of these objectives are already being met. The debate over extending pre-charge detention is consistently in the headlines and positive leaders supporting Liberty’s message appeared in six major papers.

In addition to opposition parties’ support, there is a groundswell of a Labour backbenchers rebellion - which the Guardian identified as enough to defeat the government. Liberty has also gained support from all four of the London mayoral candidates, General Synod, trade unions and leading political figures.

Liberty has used many innovative methods to campaign on this difficult issue. In addition to campaign packs and meetings with MPs, research was commissioned into comparative pre-charge detention in similar democracies and the results were used to great effect, as advertisements in the media and in a strategic billboard campaign around London.

Utilising social networking sites, the Charge or Release campaign has a presence on Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. Viral videos of Shami Chakrabarti, Vivienne Westwood and Riz Ahmed have also been distributed and a hard-hitting cinema ad, with a voiceover by Simon Callow, has been released. The campaign has taken an unpopular topic and turned it into a national debate, with real results in both the public and political arena.

Public Sector Public Affairs Campaign Of The Year

Campaign for Crossrail

In June 2006 the Mayor of London launched the Campaign for Crossrail to coordinate and galvanise political, business, union and media support to secure funding for the £16bn high-speed railway through central London. Facilitated by Finsbury, the steering committee included the mayor’s office, TfL and Crossrail. It reinvigorated latent business support and recruited ministerial advocates (the government introduced the Crossrail Bill in 2005, however, there was no timetable and funding was not certain).

Given 25 years of Crossrail talk the media, Treasury, Parliament and observers remained cynical. Multi-channel and with integrated lobbying, the campaign used media, events, private contact and briefings, generating and channelling business, political, media, and union support for Crossrail to encourage HM Treasury to resolve the impasse. Clear arguments were developed explaining the case, including national benefit, which generated consistent advocacy and press coverage; campaign ambassadors were established with a supporter network who were regularly briefed; and the website demonstrated the benefits and breadth of supporters, including outside London.

The campaign plugged into GLA/TfL’s ongoing liaison with government and ran alongside CLRL’s work on the bill. Risks were minimised to create ‘a momentum of inevitability’, enabling the campaign to adapt to a change of PM.

Private Sector Public Affairs Campaign Of The Year

Lansons Public Affairs

The challenge was to persuade the government to remove tax barriers to the sale of interest rate insurance - a concept which could protect as many as 14 million homeowners. MarketGuard Insurance approached Lansons in October 2007 with a brief to exempt the insurance payouts from income tax. At the time, HMRC insisted that the concept was taxable. To make the product commercially viable, MarketGuard needed an explicit u-turn from a department that is notoriously hard to influence.

Lansons identified the 2008 Budget as the key opportunity to secure change. Working to that timescale, the team delivered a highly strategic programme of education, coalition-building and discrete high-level summitry. Extensive focus group research supplied the campaign with original consumer data on the issue. A series of negotiations took place with housing stakeholders, industry bodies including the ABI and CML, as well as top academic advisors to government. This dialogue led to a Downing Street conference involving the No. 10 Policy Unit and DCLG advisors.

The outcome was a clear declaration in the 2008 Budget, reversing the government’s earlier position. MarketGuard was promptly featured in a range of Budget media coverage. The brief was met precisely, and with the additional benefit of building a range of key relationships for the future. The change opens up a brand new £3.5bn general insurance market.

Public Affairs Personality Of The Year

Lionel Zetter FCIPR – Public Affairs Consulant

For many years, Lionel has been a faithful servant and champion of the public affairs industry. He was chairman of the Government Affairs Group, where he transformed its membership and activities. For several years he has been on the CIPR council and executive board, and last year he was the Institute’s president. The last time the industry was under the spotlight, it was Lionel who was sent in to bat for the industry in front of the Nolan committee.

This year, when the public administration select committee launched its inquiry into lobbying, Lionel stepped in to the firing line. And it was Lionel who came up with the most memorable quotes of the session, even going so far as to assert that “of course there is good lobbying and bad lobbying, just like there is good sex and bad sex - but let’s face, it most of us would rather have bad sex than no sex at all!”

Lionel is writing a 100,000-word plus book on lobbying, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the industry. He is now plying his trade as an independent public affairs consultant. Despite having strong political views (indeed, he stood for Parliament for the Conservatives) his advice is always judicious and non-partisan.

Trade Body Of The Year

Freight Transport Association

The Freight Transport Association’s communication team has had a very busy - and a very successful - year. Within that timescale it has:

• Successfully campaigned to double the unloading time in Central London to 40 minutes - saving its members millions of pounds
• Agreed a storm warning system with the Highways Agency, enabling freight transport companies to make an informed judgement as to whether to suspend deliveries
• Persuaded Transport for London to create a London Freight Plan to recognise the importance of freight in keeping London’s economy moving
• Overturned proposals to make the new Forth crossing a tunnel instead of a bridge - a tunnel would have precluded hazardous load-bearing vehicles from using it
• Influenced the restructuring of the Department for Transport to recognise the importance of freight
• Secured a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer ahead of the Budget which helped to secure the delay in the scheduled 2p increase in fuel duty.

In summary, the FTA has boosted recognition of the sector and secured changes in government policy in response to lobbying, saving its members millions of pounds in lost revenue.

Think-Tank Of The Year

Local Government Information Unit

The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) is in a unique position in local government. It is one of the largest, most influential think-tanks; its key strength is that it balances a diverse membership with the necessary flexibility and independence to be challenging and long-term in its work.

Over the past year the LGiU’s cross-party base has grown in size and significance, and the unit now represents over 150 local authorities, including Essex County Council and Birmingham City Council. It has created four new centres of excellence at the unit to reflect the future policy challenges for local authorities: Service Transformation; Local Sustainability; Local Democracy; and Children’s Services.

The LGiU identified a worrying gap in how local government communicates with parliamentarians and government. In response, it played a leading role in establishing the all-party parliamentary local government group. Last year, the APPG undertook a highly successful inquiry into the role of a councillor, which then provided support and evidence to Dame Jane Roberts’ Councillors’ Commission.

As the LGiU celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, the unit looks ahead to ensure it continues its efforts to keep councils informed, promote innovation, and encourage central and local government to work together to improve the delivery of public services.

Uk In-House Professional Of The Year

Simon Crine – Digital UK

Simon Crine has overseen public affairs during a hugely successful and momentous year for Digital UK, and for the UK’s Digital Switchover (DSO) policy.

DSO involves converting the nation’s TV services to digital, region by region, between 2008 and 2012. In November 2007, the first leg of DSO took place successfully in Cumbria, when the analogue terrestrial TV signal was switched off for 25,000 households and replaced with digital television. The Copeland switch was the culmination of 18 months’ communications managed by Simon and his team, to stakeholders, councillors, politicians, residents and national government.

Simon has made a huge contribution to Digital UK’s work, managing public affairs, stakeholder and media communications, and co-ordinating with marketing, housing and technical colleagues, as well as regional managers.

The public affairs campaign included giving briefings to government, opposition spokespeople and committees in Westminster, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There was also the establishment of a successful DSO all-party group, run by DUK, and the establishment of a DUK consumer forum attended by ministers, consumer bodies and major charities.

Simon also recently masterminded the sealing of a £3m partnership with four major national charities to ensure the switchover message is heard by all.

UK Consultancy Of The Year

Edelman

Edelman has gone from strength to strength over the past year: we have won record new business, our profitability has grown by 50 per cent, and we have expanded the breadth of our expertise through key senior appointments.

In the past 12 months, we have won more new business than at any time in our history. We are also rightly proud of our ability to retain and grow existing clients, including well-known brands such as PepsiCo and Microsoft, and doubling our profitability. Our proprietary annual client survey returns an average satisfaction score of 90 per cent; this strong client satisfaction reflects the quality we expect of our people. Employees are trained at every level and are required to complete at least four days’ training a year.

We believe that some of our most high profile work has set the standard for best practice in the industry, for instance, our Open University (OU) campaign against government funding cuts for part-time education has led to a substantial shift in DIUS thinking; and Thomas Cook, where a campaign for another bank holiday is proving influential.

A common theme running through our work is pioneering use of online advocacy: we recruited 500,000 signatures online for Thomas Cook’s campaign; we created a microsite for the OU to drive grassroots support.

UK Consultant Of The Year

Luke Akehurst – Weber Shandwick

2007 was Luke Akehurst's first full year as a director of Weber Shandwick Public Affairs, having risen through the company since joining in 2000. Luke continues to serve longstanding clients such as Balfour Beatty, Finmeccanica and GKN plc with loyalty, efficiency, good humour, political intelligence and an encyclopaedic knowledge of facts and figures. Over the last year, he has won prestigious new clients such as support services giant Serco Group.

He advised Shropshire County Council on achieving its bid to become a unitary council, and advised Devon and Suffolk County Councils on their successful campaigns, against the political odds, to fend off unitary bids by Exeter and Ipswich. Luke is often found offering counsel and tactical and strategic insight at the heart of some of the key issues in Whitehall and Westminster.

He is an acknowledged policy expert on defence and local government issues, and respected for his specialist knowledge by clients up to chief executive level, but is equally comfortable advising major corporations, voluntary sector clients, not-for-profits and even London’s Electric Ballroom music venue.

Luke’s time management skills are excellent and despite working for a very wide range of clients he is always able to focus on their specific projects. He has a knack for combining emotional commitment to a campaign with the professional detachment needed to offer objective advice.