Women in PR is delighted to announce the 2018 list of mentees for the Women in PR/PR Week Mentoring Scheme. We run this scheme to help mid-level career women overcome challenges and get to the very top, supporting our mission to increase the number of female leaders in the UK PR industry.
This year we received more entries than ever before. This is the fifth year we have run this initiative, which has seen 60 women successfully complete the programme. The list of mentees and who they will be mentored by is as follows:
|
Mentee |
Mentor |
||
|
Michaela Gray |
Corporate PR Account Director, Golin |
Deborah Saw |
Vice Chair and Senior Partner, Newgate |
|
Navprit Rai |
Communications Manager, Trust for London |
Christina Kelly |
Director of Corporate Affairs, Clydesdale |
|
Chrissie Cooper |
Associate Director, Fever |
Molly Aldridge |
Global CEO, M&C Saatchi PR |
|
Alison Hicks |
Associate Director, business and |
Maria Darby-Walker |
NED and Executive Coach |
|
Alicia Solanki |
Practice Director, Ketchum |
Tanya Ridd |
Director of Communications for EMEA, |
|
Brooke Kenyon |
Managing Director, Orchard PR |
Ginny Paton |
Director, Mischief (former MD of House |
|
Surinder Sian |
PR & Communications Manager, Linklaters |
Gay Collins |
Founding Partner, Montfort Communications |
|
Heather Iqbal |
Senior Comms |
Jennifer Thomas |
Head of internal comms |
|
Alex Birch |
Director of Client Services, Clarity PR |
Jo-ann Robertson |
CEO, Ketchum London |
|
Lucy Newson |
Business Director, Karmarama |
Rachel Bell |
Chairman, The Academy |
|
Melissa Robinson |
Director, Frank PR |
Rachel Friend |
UK CEO, Weber Shandwick |
|
Emma Duke |
Head of Communications, Oxford University |
Nicola Green |
Director of Corporate Affairs, O2 |
|
Elizabeth Wilmshurst |
Managing Director, The Clever Comms Co |
Misha Dhanak |
Founder & CEO, The Romans |
|
Ellen Carroll |
Director, Nellie PR |
Shelley Facius |
Founder & director, Juice PR |
|
Jo Hooper |
Head of Communications, Which? |
Ali Jeremy |
Director of communications at NSPCC |
Our judging panel was comprised of five senior women from the WPR Committee whose experience spans across in-house, agency and freelance. Our President was not involved in the judging process. The judges were reviewing the entries against three key criteria:
- Future leadership potential
- Evidence of industry engagement and demonstrable impact
- Clear objectives for career and rationale for needing a mentor at this point in time
The mentees are a very diverse group. We have women from corporate environments, working for big law firms such as Linklaters and also NGOs and charities such as Global Witness. The agency world is well represented with applicants from large (Ketchum, Four) and small (Orchard PR) firms alike, including two agency owners. We also have a freelance consultant with big ambitions to build up her freelance business.
We’ve paired the mentees with the best person from our mentor group to work through their career challenges and help them realise their aspirations.
The mentees will be writing stories for our blog throughout the year to share the journey. If you are interested in applying for a place on next year’s scheme, please follow us on Twitter @WIPRUK to receive information about the application process and deadline.
Nicky Imrie and George Blizzard
Co-Founders, The PR Network
Mentoring Programme Leads
