The President's Year

I began communicating directly with members about the year ahead through the CIPR Volunteer Welcome session and a new video format, CIPR 1 Minute. It developed into a regular way to share Institute news, opportunities and issues affecting the profession. Good governance depends on communication that is regular, intelligible and open.

Watch the first CIPR 1 Minute update: youtu.be/Rj81w1iGn4k

I also spoke at the CIPR Not-for-Profit group’s CPD Hacks event about continuous professional development. CPD is sometimes treated as an administrative requirement. I see it as a professional habit: the discipline of remaining useful as the world around us changes.

On 28 January, I represented the CIPR at the launch of the Business and Democracy Commission report Navigating Growing Political Pressures, held at Ipsos in London and supported by Jericho Chambers, Ipsos and the CIPR. The report examined the pressures facing business, including disinformation, conflicts over values and scrutiny of lobbying, and what these mean for trust and organisational resilience.

The discussion went to the heart of Making the Case for PR. Public relations belongs close to the decisions organisations make about legitimacy, reputation and their relationship with society. If communicators enter only after a decision has been taken, organisations lose part of their capacity to anticipate how that decision will be understood.

I also contributed to Crisis Communications for Boards, an initiative involving the CIPR Crisis Communications Network and the Institute of Directors. My contribution focused on horizon scanning and its role in risk mitigation and crisis preparedness.

This advanced a central argument of my manifesto: PR practitioners should be recognised as trusted advisers at the highest decision-making levels. A board that treats communications as a downstream function often discovers risk too late. Horizon scanning brings the communicator’s understanding of stakeholders, narrative and legitimacy into the room before pressure becomes crisis.

I co-hosted the CIPR Executive Dinner Series on geopolitics with Farrer and Co, bringing together senior figures from communications, business and related professions. We considered how political instability, economic pressure and global uncertainty are changing reputation risk. Smaller senior-level gatherings allow for candour. They also connect the Institute with leaders facing problems that rarely arrive in neat professional categories.

At City St George’s, University of London, I delivered a guest lecture to Master’s students on reputation management. We worked through real reputation and crisis challenges, the impact of AI and the capabilities future practitioners will need. AI may alter the production of communications, but it increases the premium on judgement. The practitioner still has to understand context, consequence and the human being at the other end of the message.

Earlier in the month, I represented the profession at the Diversity UK Changemakers Series in a discussion on leadership, entrepreneurship and professional networks. Access to networks is not a soft issue. It influences whose talent is noticed, whose confidence develops and who is able to progress.

April was one of the busiest months of the year. At the CIPR Corporate Affiliate networking event, I met in-house teams, agency leaders and senior communicators. Employers have a direct role in professionalisation. They decide whether practitioners receive time for learning, whether Chartership is recognised and whether communications expertise is included early enough to influence decisions.

On 17 April, I joined CIPR Wessex for Fake Experts: Challenges for Media and PR Professionals, alongside Gerald Bowey, President of the Chartered Institute of Journalists. We discussed verification, professional accountability and the pressures facing journalism and public relations in a polluted information environment. Trust is not restored by assertion. It is earned through methods people can rely on.

Here’s a short clip from the event: youtu.be/tjW4JEYFF_M

Later in the month, I took part in the CIPR International webinar From Stereotypes to Strategy: Building a Nation’s Narrative. Nation branding exposes the full complexity of communications across borders. A country’s reputation cannot be reduced to a campaign line. It is shaped by policy, conduct, culture and lived experience, and communicators must understand the distance that sometimes opens between promise and proof.

Here’s a replay of the event: youtu.be/n9uS13lsQWI

April also brought the first CIPR Quarterly Progress Live broadcast. It created another regular point of contact with members and a way to explain the Institute’s work while it was still unfolding.

You can watch a replay here: youtube.com/live/OYCYWO85nCY

I returned to London College of Communication, this time to speak with first-year students about the PR industry, my own professional journey and the opportunities available to people at the beginning of their careers. The room contained the future of the profession in all its variety. Our responsibility is to make sure professional standards feel relevant and reachable to them.

On 20 May, I co-hosted another CIPR Corporate Executive Dinner with Lewis Silkin. Senior communications practitioners discussed reputation management, fragmented audiences, geopolitical uncertainty and the UK’s reputation and soft power. These conversations help the Institute remain close to the questions occupying communications leaders, while making space for practitioners to compare judgement rather than merely exchange polished case studies.

Later in the month, I joined the CIPR STEM Committee as a guest. The Institute’s specialist communities hold deep knowledge and strong professional relationships. Part of the President’s role is to listen to them, connect their work to the wider strategy and ensure that expertise travels across the organisation.

On 18 June, I spoke at the AI for PR Conference 2026 in London. AI-driven innovation was one of the principal commitments in my manifesto, but my interest has never been technology for its own sake. The important questions concern the future status and practice of public relations: which tasks will change, what will become more valuable and how practitioners can use new tools without surrendering professional judgement.

Responsible adoption must include access. Training cannot be reserved for the best-resourced teams. If AI widens the gap between practitioners, the profession will have failed to manage a technology it is helping organisations explain. The CIPR has a role in ensuring members can learn, experiment and understand the ethical risks as well as the practical opportunity.

On 1 July, I opened the CIPR Excellence Awards in London. The awards are a major moment in the Institute’s calendar and an opportunity to recognise exceptional work. Professional excellence becomes more useful when others can see the judgement, ethics and craft behind it.

The following day brought another CIPR Quarterly Progress Live, continuing regular communication with members.

Here’s a recap: youtube.com/live/u8v6Fua8S2w

I also took part in the CIPR’s Annual General Meeting, part of the essential governance work that accompanies the public side of the presidency.

The month included work with Influence examining what the UK-India relationship means for public relations and communications. It connected directly with my commitment to global engagement. Practitioners increasingly work across political cultures, media systems and different histories of trust. International capability is no longer a specialist extra.

On 12 August, I spoke at the launch webinar for the CIPR Research Fund report Impact Beyond Borders: Expanding Global Access for Young African Communicators, authored by Adedoyin Jaiyesimi Chart.PR, MCIPR.

Drawing on more than 200 respondents across 11 African countries, the research examined why young African communications professionals can struggle to access global PR training, certification and employment. Its findings on affordability, awareness and the relevance of international training to African markets raise important questions for any professional body with global ambitions.

This spoke directly to my manifesto commitment on international engagement and knowledge-sharing. Global cannot simply describe where an organisation has contacts. It must describe who can access its opportunities. For the profession to become genuinely international, training, networks and professional recognition have to make sense in different markets and be within reach of the people working there.