YBF Career Workshop - Working in Public Affairs

The next YBF Career Workshop will be held on Wednesday 15^th February 2012 at 5:30pm at Bell Pottinger Public Affairs Ltd.

Focusing on the world of public affairs, the event will be hosted by:

Peter Bingle - Chairman of Bell Pottinger

With over 26 years experience in public affairs, Peter Bingle is one of the most prominent figures in the industry. He has advised the CEOs and MDs of some of the largest companies in the world and helped them navigate through a wide variety of major reputational crises – including McDonald’s at the onset of the BSE crisis, the Police Federation through the Sheehy inquiry and, most recently Damon Buffini and Permira in the face of concerted attacks on the private equity industry. 

Peter has devoted his professional career to fostering a constructive and beneficial relationship between government and business. He is adamant that there has to be a strong relationship between public affairs practitioners and government advisers – good public affairs helps government to do its job properly and effectively. 

Speakers will include:

Tim Collins - Managing Director at Bell Pottinger

Tim Collins has been at the heart of the worlds of Westminster, Whitehall and the media since the mid-1980s. 

He was a speech-writer for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Press Secretary (and principal spokesman) for Prime Minister 
John Major throughout his victorious 1992 General Election campaign - ending up watching the results come in with him in his home. 

As Director of Communications for the Conservative Party he ran Party Conferences, advertising and media relations. He has excellent contacts with many journalists, and has himself written for, amongst others, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian. 

In Whitehall, he has been a Special Adviser in multiple Government Departments, culminating in joining the Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street. 

Daniel Hamilton - Director of European Affairs at Bell Pottinger

Dan previously worked as the Director of civil liberties and privacy think tank Big Brother Watch and Head of European Insight at the leading opinion polling and political research consultancy ComRes.

He has worked in both the House of Commons and European Parliament and was praised in the Total Politics Guide to the 2010 General Election for his “remarkable, encyclopaedic knowledge” of politics.

A regular media pundit, he has appeared on the Today Programme, the One Show, BBC News, Sky News, ITV News, Fox News and CNN. He was Al Jazeera’s political commentator on the evening of the 2010 British election, broadcasting continuously for over ten hours.

Jimmy Mcloughlin - Assistant Director at Bell Pottinger

James McLoughlin joined Bell Pottinger Public Affairs as an Associate Director in 2011. James has a strong understanding of how the Conservative Party operates and has worked on Boris Johnson’s operations team during his successful Mayoral election campaign in 2008. 

His past experience includes designing and implementing senior political engagement programmes for some of the most prominent FTSE 100 companies, having advised client across a number of sectors.  In addition, he has media trained clients for both television and radio for high profile appearances from BBC1’s Question Time to Radio 4’s Any Questions.