Judges
If you would like to nominate a colleague to be a judge, or to put yourself forward, please email awards@prca.org.uk
Carolina Gasparoli
FINN Partners
Carolina is Vice-President at global agency FINN Partners, in the London office.
She has over 12 years of experience in public affairs, both in the UK and EU, strategic communications, and stakeholder and media engagement. Carolina has worked in agencies as well as in-house across highly regulated sectors, including energy, tech, and legal services. She has advised global companies at the most senior level. She has recently completed the Business Sustainability Management Course, at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Chris Rogers
iNHouse Communications
Chris has nearly 20 years’ experience in public relations and public affairs. He joined iNHouse in 2018, having begun his career in consumer and financial services PR for a leading City-based agency, before moving to a respected public affairs consultancy and leading its media relations, reputation and crisis practices. He’s developed and led high-profile national campaigns, including on public health and Armed Forces veterans, also working across sectors including education, tax, defence and healthcare.
Clova Fyfe
Brands2life
Clova has over 25 years’ experience of working in public affairs and corporate reputation.
She has extensive experience of advising senior business leaders on their engagement with politicians and policy makers across a range of sectors including telecoms, health tech, sustainability, science and tech and health and diagnostics.
She currently leads the Public Affairs Practice at the UK’s leading tech PR agency Brands2life, where she advises a range of leading brands on how to build their political reputation and shape the policy environment.
Prior to joining Brands2life, she spent over 10 years leading the BT Group’s relationship with political stakeholders in Westminster, Whitehall and the devolved parliaments
Emily Fermor
Hanbury Strategy
Emily advises clients on UK political strategy, campaigns and communications. In her seven years at Hanbury she has helped build the public affairs practice, and last year was named one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women in Westminster. She is Chair of the PRCA Public Affairs Professional Board, which upholds ethical standards in the industry, and sits on the Design Museum’s External Affairs Committee where she advises the Board on reputation and politics. She is a former councillor, parliamentary candidate, and adviser to the Liberal Democrat Leader on three general election campaigns.
Jessica Lister
Public First
Jess Lister is an Associate Director at policy and strategy consultancy Public First, focusing primarily on education policy both nationally and internationally. Since joining the education practice at Public First in 2021, she has worked with some of the biggest names in the education sector and established a reputation for creating public affairs strategies that combine sharp policy analysis, political awareness, and public opinion.
She was previously public affairs coordinator at the University of Cambridge, and helped the university navigate the small matter of Brexit, a general election, and a global pandemic.
Jo Field
JFG Communications
Jo Field is Founder & Chief Executive of JFG Communications, a public affairs consultancy that is helping the transport industry to decarbonise and diversify its workforce.
Named among the 100 most influential women in Westminster and the top ten most inspirational women in public affairs, Jo has over 20 years of experience helping companies engage their stakeholders, build advocacy for their plans, and inform and influence public policy.
Jo has specialist expertise providing strategic advice on complex, publicly-funded transport projects that are under high levels of scrutiny, including experience on Crossrail and HS2.
Before founding JFG Communications, Jo spent almost a decade at Transport for London where she built and led the company’s award-winning stakeholder engagement team, building stakeholder support and advocacy for London’s transport infrastructure and the funding to deliver it.
Jo is a Chartered Public Relations practitioner and a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation.
Jo is also the President of Women in Transport, where she has built cross-party support for improved gender-balance and overseen Women in Transport grow from a small, London-based group to a UK-wide organisation that is a powerful movement for change.
Leon Cook
Atticus Communications
Leon has more than 20 years international experience as a government relations and corporate communications specialist, having worked for three of the biggest global agencies, been seconded to two national oil companies, and worked inhouse for the likes of SONY and Anglo American.
Leon has led multi-functional cross-border teams in the UK and across Europe and Middle East to develop bespoke reputation, government affairs and communications strategies for pressure groups, foreign governments and large multinationals across multiple sectors. Leon is responsible for overall strategy and client campaign development across Atticus’ client base.
Lizzy Tomlin
H/Advisors Cicero
Lizzy is Head of UK Public Affairs at H/Advisors Cicero, working predominantly with financial services clients. She has widespread agency experience, assisting several FTSE250 clients on legislative affairs, financial services policy and consumer policy. Her clients have included Barclays UK, American Express, Klarna, Santander UK and AXA UK. As part of the H/Advisors Exchange Programme, Lizzy spent four weeks in Washington D.C. with H/Advisors Abernathy working on U.S. Public Affairs and building relationships across the pond.
Lizzy started her career working for two Liberal Democrat MPs – Paul Burstow MP and Adrian Sanders MP – in Westminster during the Coalition Government. Prior to joining H/Advisors Cicero, Lizzy worked for a political consultancy firm specialising in local government and planning. Here she worked on various planning applications across the UK on behalf of large-scale residential developers, whilst circumnavigating local politics.
Marc Woolfson
WA Communications
Marc is a Founding Partner at WA Communications, with over 20 years’ experience of leading award-winning strategic communications and public affairs campaigns, delivering policy wins and commercial results. Having worked across most regulated sectors, he now focuses mainly in the transport and infrastructure sectors, working with investors and executive teams to minimise political and policy risk and enhance reputational impact.
Martha Dalton
Lodestone
A former Director of a City communications agency, and political strategist, Martha is a founding partner of Lodestone and its CEO.
She advises global clients on strategic communications, campaigns, public affairs and strategy. She has advised FTSE250 companies, brands and charities on critical political issues, regulatory challenges and reputational management. She had led high profile campaigns for the Musician’s Union and the Bourbon Alliance. Listed in PR Week’s 30 under 30 2016, in PRWeek’s Powerbook 2023 as an environmental champion, she is a Trustee of the Institute of the Future of Work and co-founded the grassroots organisation RegistHERtoVote. She has advised a number of political campaigns and headed up communications for Labour Party leadership candidates in 2015 (Tom Watson MP) and 2020 (Lisa Nandy MP).
Paul Church
Connect
Paul is a member of PRCA’s Management Board, and has over a decade of experience in communications, with a specialism in government relations and public affairs.
He is a Board Director at Connect, having previously advised a former Secretary of State and served as Chief of Staff to a Government Minister, and has served as patron and trustee of a number of charitable organisations.
Paul was Vice Chair of the inaugural Public Affairs Board, and has a track record of creating award-winning, issues-led campaigns, designing and implementing successful strategies and providing senior counsel to private, public and third sector organisations to meet their policy objectives, raise profiles and bring about positive change together.
Rebecca Lury
Pagefield
Rebecca is a Partner at Pagefield with over 15 years’ experience providing strategy, policy, public affairs, and corporate communications support for clients in sectors including property, charities, FMCG, defence and transport.
Rebecca is actively involved with the Labour Party, having stood as a candidate at the 2017 and 2019 General Elections, and she was a Labour Councillor in Southwark from 2012-2022.
Rebecca was announced as one of the ‘Ones to Watch’ in the Women in Westminster 100 in 2023.
Simon Darby
PLMR
Simon is a vastly experienced consultant, having worked in public affairs and communications for fifteen years.
Simon leads PLMR’s public affairs practice, advising clients on how to navigate the policy, political and regulatory environment impacting their business and helping them engage with policymakers and wider stakeholders. Simon has an extensive track record of delivering successful public affairs and PR programmes for clients to help them achieve their objectives.
He is responsible for setting the strategic direction of our work for clients and leading account teams to ensure the delivery of high-quality campaigns. During his career, Simon has worked with clients across a range of sectors. Notably, this has included organisations within the health, housing, tech, skills, infrastructure and professional services sectors as well as across wider public service markets.
Simon works with organisations seeking to engage at a national (Westminster), devolved, regional and local government level. He has led numerous award-winning campaigns and was recognised as the PRCA’s 2022 Public Affairs Consultant of the Year.
Stuart Thomson
CWE Communications
Stuart runs his own consultancy, CWE Communications, and has over 25 years’ experience of advising clients on public affairs and reputation management. He is the author of books including ‘Public Affairs in Practice’ and ‘Reputation in Business’, regularly blogs and has a podcast. His new book, ‘The Company and the Activist’ will be out in November,
Stuart leads the PRCA’s Diploma in Public Affairs Management and sits on the PRCA Management Board.
Tim Saunders
Dentons Global Advisors
Tim has over a decade’s worth of experience in policy and public affairs. He has been a trusted advisor to major companies and trade associations, specialising in sustainability, technology and public procurement. He has a track record of success in delivering public policy and fiscal change, directing high level campaigns, and advising decision makers on crises and sensitive corporate issues. Former clients have included Uber, Fujitsu, Hitachi, ABB, Stena Line, National Grid, International Game Technology, Calor and Callsign, working on a range of issues from major public sector bids to tax, regulation and industrial policy. Prior to joining the public affairs industry,
Tim worked in high-profile areas of government, ranging from international climate change negotiations to business policy. Tim graduated in Law from Oxford University and holds a master’s degree in Public Policy.