Nick Wright

Nick is a senior, experienced communications and engagement professional now operating as an independent consultant.

Between 2011 and 2015 Nick was communications director at accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO.  His responsibilities covered the full range of reputation management activity including media, public affairs, employee and brand engagement.  He built a new communications function that was awarded ‘Best In-House Team’ by both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and PR Week in 2014.

During this period Nick was also an independent member of the Government Communications Service Capability Review team that assessed the Food Standards Agency and the Rural Payments Agency.

Prior to joining BDO he spent 13 years at corporate communications consultancy Fishburn Hedges where he was a board director and led the employee engagement and change practice.  During that time he worked on a range of assignments in both the public, private and professional service sectors.

In addition, he has had stints in-house with Boots as their first head of employee communications and subsequently with Lloyds TSB performing a similar role during the merger of the two banks.

Nick is a member of both the CIPR and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Sue Stapely

Sue Stapely, a solicitor, is an independent reputation management consultant, specialising in discreet counsel to global businesses and individuals.  She is also a coach, trainer and author of Media Relations for Lawyers.

Sue’s career has included a decade with strategic communications consultancy, Quiller Consultants, a period as a director of Fishburn Hedges, the leading corporate communications agency and some years as Head of Public Relations for the Law Society.

Sue has worked pro bono, on many high-profile miscarriages of justice cases.  These included mounting the successful campaign which over-turned the wrongful conviction of Sally Clark and changed the judicial approach to unexplained infant death.

Sue’s first career was with BBC TV.  She then requalified as a solicitor, becoming a partner in law firm, Heald Nickinson, heading its family law department and establishing the first public affairs department in a UK law firm.

A founder of the SDP, Sue was elected to its National Executive Committee, chaired the Women for Social Democracy and stood in the 1987 General Election.  She was the first Chair of the 300 Group – the all-party campaign to bring more women into politics.

A regular broadcaster and columnist, she has contributed to many programmes, including Question Time, Any Questions, Newsnight and the Today programme.

She has served on many boards in the NHS, the arts and consumer sectors.

Guy Corbet

Guy is an independent communications and marketing consultant, helping businesses influence how they are seen by the audiences that are most important to their success.

He advises businesses on how to plan, promote and protect their reputations.  Guy has advised senior executives, launched campaigns, companies and products, handled crises and shaped, built and protected brands.

He is one of the founders of The Measurement Practice, which was set up so businesses can better measure, understand and improve the value their communications deliver.

For three years until 2015 he was a managing director at leading communications agency Brands2Life, where he created the corporate affairs and brand team and successfully established it in the market.

Before that, he spent 18 years in the Fishburn Hedges Group.  In 2008-2012 he was marketing and group marketing director, responsible for how the top-20 corporate communications agency Fishburn Hedges faced the market, while overseeing how the consumer, design and digital agencies in the group positioned themselves.

Previously, in 2004-08 he was managing director of Seventy Seven, the consumer brand subsidiary within the Fishburn Hedges Group, which he set up to bring a more effective approach to consumer communications.