The Purposeful Relations Advisory Board is our sounding board to engage with external expert advisors. It is there to provide insights and critical thinking to stimulate robust discussions about the future of the communications and public relations profession. Its expert insight, challenge and analysis help ensure that our team’s advice to clients remains robust and forward looking to the future of the profession.
Our global advisory board has members from the UK, USA, Australia and India. If you are interested in contributing, then please get in touch.
Anne Gregory
Anne Gregory PhD is Professor Emeritus of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield in the UK and is one of the world’s leading communications academics.
She is a former chair of Global Alliance, the international confederation of public relations and communications management organisations.
Anne led the development of the Global Capability Framework, adopted by professional associations worldwide to benchmark professional capabilities in communications and public relations.
Anne is a Reviewer of Government Communication appointed by the UK Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office. She is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, leading to its chartered status. She is the winner of the prestigious Atlas Award, which is conferred only in exceptional circumstances and is rarely awarded to non-American recipients.
She is a founder member of the CIPR’s #AIinPR panel and co-authored three of its major research reports exploring issues such as the impact of AI and ethics.
She is the author of many books, book chapters and journal articles, including Strategic Public Relations Leadership (co-authored with Professor Paul Willis) and Planning and Managing Public Relations: A Strategic Approach, one of the fundamental texts of professional practice.
She runs international executive education programmes for the UK government, European Commission, Swedish Communications Association, University of Navarrain Spain and RMIT University in Australia.
Anne is a keen walker and enjoys the many scenic and culinary delights of her Yorkshire home.
Tim Johns
Tim Johns is a leadership coach, consultant and author. He helps make complex things simple. He helps humanise organisations and issues. He has acted as a pro bono adviser to Tomorrow’s Company.
Tim is the former Vice President of Global Corporate Communications for Unilever where he ran media relations and internal communications globally, as well as a team providing communications for Unilever categories and business functions.
He is the author of Leading from Home, to help leaders explore the real issues around working from home and looks to the future to challenge legacy mindsets.
Before heading up Unilever’s global communications Tim held similar leadership roles with other blue-chip companies.
At BT Tim was director of media relations, directing all BT media relations across the globe. He dealt with critical issues such as a £10 billion disposal programme, demerger of O2 and a new CEO and chairman.
Earlier, as Head of UK PR, he led all UK public relations including corporate and marketing communications. He was responsible for the 12 PR agencies on BT’s roster.
Prior to this, Tim was at Sainsburys, where he was responsible for all corporate and financial messages, and many proactive campaigns, including the Clean Air initiative and Sunday Shopping campaign.
Tim trained as an executive coach with Myler Campbell and uses this and his global corporate communications experience to provide support to businesses and leaders through change.
Tim does extensive pro bono work for numerous organisations and charities.
He’s a passionate fan of literature and classical music.
Kara Alaimo
Kara Alaimo PhD is an Associate Professor of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA. She is a frequent expert commentator for CNN Opinion.
Kara is the author of Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication.
She served President Barack Obama as Spokesperson for International Affairs in the US Treasury.
From 2012-13, Dr Alaimo served as the Head of Communications for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
As President Obama’s Spokesperson for International Affairs in the U.S. Treasury Department, Kara communicated global economic diplomacy initiatives, including America’s bilateral economic relationships; engagement in multilateral institutions including the G-20, World Bank, and IMF; and international monetary, trade, development, environmental, and energy policy. In this capacity, she also served as media adviser to Jim Yong Kim during his successful 2012 campaign for the World Bank Presidency.
From 2012-2013, Dr. Alaimo served as Head of Communications for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a group of heads of state and other eminent thinkers convened to recommend the world’s next plan for eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development.
Kara Alaimo’s book, Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street, offers a modern guide for how to practice public relations and strategic communication around the globe. She interviews 30 senior PR professionals to provide a guide to how to build and manage a global public relations team and how to practice global public relations on behalf of corporations, non-profit organizations, and governments.
Her academic research on social media and international and advocacy communication has been published in academic journals including the International Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Affairs, Case Studies in Strategic Communication, and Social Media & Society.
Becca Caddy
Becca Caddy is a freelance journalist, writer and author specialising in technology, science and the future. She has written for Wired, New Scientist The Sunday Times, The Observer, Metro, Techradar, T3, MSN, Gizmodo and many others.
Becca is the author of Screen Time, a practical guide to help people find a better balance with the technology they use every day. It’s all about our love/hate relationship with technology and how to find your happy tech balance or techquilibrium.
Becca started her career in public relations working for a digital first PR and social media consultancy.
She then became a staff writer with Reputation Online, part of New Media Age before becoming a technology columnist for BitchBuzz.
After graduating in English Language and Literature, Becca studied for an MA in Public Relations and Communications.
She started her career in public relations, working with big brands such as Sony Ericsson, Discovery Channel, First Direct (part of HSBC) and Asda (then owned by Walmart).
Becca then switched from PR to journalism and became a staff writer with Reputation Online, part of New Media Age. She went on to become a technology columnist for BitchBuzz and then UK editor for Popgadget, editor of Shiny Shiny.
She then became content editor of MSN where she managed all UK editorial output for MSN Now. She oversaw social media strategy and implementation across all online assets to encourage engagement, hit fan acquisition targets and drive traffic to the site. Becca liaised with international SEO, design, editorial and technical teams to ensure the smooth running of the site globally, solve issues quickly and build relationships with other markets.
Becca then became a publisher at Sutro Digital where she oversaw it’s top titles with responsibility for editorial planning, brand development and social media strategy of Sutro Digital’s publishing arm, including sites like TechDigest.tv, ShinyShiny.tv and Connected Health. She helped each team prepare editorial content, address technical issues, advise on work-flow, organisation, as well as editorial style, tone and structure.
Since 2015 Becca has been a freelance technology and science journalist. She has written hundreds of news articles, features and industry reports on technology, science and the future.
Topics she has covered include virtual reality, robotics, AI, smart homes, wearable technology, health technology, space travel, science-fiction and bionics.
She was an early adopter of remote working and spent a year travelling in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia while still managing to meet all of her UK deadlines.
Becca has an endless fascination with science, space and technology. So much so that when she’s not working you’ll find her geeking out on science fiction – everything from Star Trek to Babylon 5 and Dune.
Wayne Burns
Wayne Burns is the executive director of the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs. He is an experienced management consultant and executive educator who works with leaders in the C-suite.
The Centre for Corporate Public Affairs was established in 1990 and operates across Asia Pacific and the Middle East. It is headquarted in Sydney, Australia. It primarily works with large corporations (such as the Fortune 500), governments and industry associations.
Wayne has led the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs since 2006 and in 2018 led a management buyout of the centre from management consultants ACIL Allen Consulting.
Before joining ACIL Allen Consulting, to run the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, Wayne held senior roles at the Insurance Australia Group.
Wayne started his career in journalism as a political reporter for the Australian Financial Review. He then moved directly into politics and became the media and policy advisor to cabinet minister John Dawkins MP, the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training and Treasurer of Australia.
He returned to the private sector as a senior consulant at Hill & Knowlton. He next became the Communications Director for the Australian Republican Movement, a non-partisan membership and lobby organisation pressing for Australia to become a republic, with its own Head of State.
In 2000 Wayne joined the Insurance Australia Group where he held a variety of senior leadership positions including Head of Stakeholder Relations, Head of External Relations and Head of Communications.
At the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs Wayne leads strategy, member relations, stakeholder outreach and research. He writes and speaks extensively on a range of public affairs, communications and socio-political issues.
He also develops and delivers executive education programmes and delivers them through the Centre and in business schools in Australia, Hong Kong, China and Singapore.
He has extensive expertise and experience in socio-political business strategy and management, public advocacy, public policy development, issues management, organisational design, corporate responsibility, corporate reputation and stakeholder relations.
Amith Prabhu
Amith Prabhu is the founding dean at the School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRE) and the co-creator of PRAXIS, one of the world’s largest festivals of public relations and reputation management.
He is also the founder of the PRomise Foundation for PR in India which is a non-profit philanthropic venture to enhance the reputation of the profession.
Before embarking on SCoRE, PRomise and PRAXIS, Amith worked for a number of global public relations and communications consultancies in India and the USA. These include Genesis Burson-Marsteller, APCO Worldwide, Starcom MediaVest, Vikai (Public Groupe) and Edelman.
Amith established the PRomise Foundation in 2012 and started to run the PRAXIS Summit which is now one of the world’s largest public relations summits.
PRAXIS travels to different cities in India and typically has more than 500 PR professionals from India with top speakers from India, Asia and around the world. It now includes the Fulcrum Awards.
Amith sits on the international board of Global Alliance.
Amith started with Genesis Burson-Marsteller before helping to establish APCO Worldwide’s Mumbai office for its India operations. He then joined Starcom MediaVest Group as director – corporate communications where his pan-India responsibilities included communicating with talent within the organisation, potential talent in campuses, other organisations and managing communications with various stakeholders including media, partners and clients.
His role included part-time oversight of VivaKi, Publicis Groupe’s strategic entity for its media and digital brands, which eventually became a full-time role when he joined it as director – communications.
Amith then spent two years in the USA working with Edelman in Chicago.
Amith is the founding dean of SCoRE, the School of Communication and Reputation. It is south Asia’s first institute to be accredited by the Global Alliance and is the only institute endorsed by the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI). It provides post-graduate diplomas and corporate learning to upskill the public relations and communications professionals in India.
He writes the longest running regular weekly column for Reputation Today.
Amith’s specialisms included crisis communications, strategy, messaging and mentoring.