BTP Advisers

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

BTP Advisers are a public relations firm based in London and have offices in Kenya, Ghana, Washington, Paris and the DR Congo.

What they do

BTP specialise in providing media relations and campaigning for clients and have acted in the UK, Continental Europe and Africa.

• 'Corporate and Financial' - they claim to be able to help you build the 'right relationships with the key opinion formers within the financial community'.
• 'Media Relations' - using their knowledge of the media they claim to enable your voice to be heard.
• 'Election Services' - have a huge amount of experience having fought campaigns across the world for over two decades.

They also offer media training, public affairs services, the running of political campaigns, political risk analysis, consumer PR and social media campaigning.

Work

Rwanda

Mark Pursey, head of BTP, worked as an international media adviser to the Rwandan government after the First Congo War. Pursey was secretly recorded, claiming that during this war a whole series of accusations were made against Rwandan troops, rather than deal with the accusations they focused on the reasonableness of the accusers. They targeted people who were over criticising and questioned why they were, did they have something to hide? This was all done via an internet 'attack site', and led to a 2009 report from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative saying Rwanda's 'excellent public relations machinery' had succeeded in hiding 'the exclusionary and repressive nature of the regime'.

In the same tape, London councilman Edward Lord, was fooled by journalists posing as representatives of Uzbekistan and said he has a non-executive role with BTP. He said he would be willing to work on behalf of BTP to improve the countries reputation and one way he suggested was to edit the Wikipedia page to make it sound less negative. When asked about the tape, both Pursey and Lord backtracked and said Lord does not in fact work for the company but was there to support the pitch instead.

Azerbaijan

During the sting, where Pursey revealed the work he had undertaken for the Rwandan government, he also said they were working for the government of Azerbaijan, who he claimed had 'its own set of very complex issues'. Pursey claimed that as well as working for the governments of Azerbaijan and Rwanda they also work for the new Ivory Coast government as well as the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe.

Kenya

BTP advised Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in his victory over Raila Odinga, advised by Bell Pottinger Communications, in 2013. Kenyatta faces charges from the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity for his role in the violence during the 2007 Kenyan elections, when more than 1,200 people were killed and 300,000 were chased from their homes.

Threats of violence haunted those elections, the first since clashes broke out after the 2007 post-election crisis. BTP's Mark Pursey worked on Kenyatta's nationalist stance, claiming that the charges were a Western campaign against him and deputy president, William Ruto.

Nigeria

BTP workked with the UK Labour Party and former Obama election 'guru', David Axelrod in the 2015 Nigerian presidential election. They represented the opposition party All Progressive Congress's candidate Muhammadu Buhari in his victory over Goodluck Jonathan, represented by veteran strategist Joe Trippi and Bell Pottinger Communications.

People

• Bobby Leach, chairman. Is also director group communications at Vimpelcom. Former captain in the British Army, director at Weber Shandwick and group director of communications at Vodafone Group Plc.
• Mark Pursey, managing partner. Has worked in communications at Deutsche Bank and Vodaphone and was part of the Liberal Democrats 2010 General Election team.
• Charles Anglin, partner and managing partner of BTP Africa. Has held a number of roles with the Liberal Democrats, former director of public affairs at British Retail Consortium, head of public sector practice at Local Dialogue and director of communications at RenewableUK.
• Medard Mulangala, chairman, BTP Africa. Former director at Citibank DRC, cabinet minister in charge of mining and energy, hydrocarbures, land and mining, and industry in DR Congo government, CEO of Engen Petroleum DRC and MP and rapporteur of the Economic and Finance Commission at the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Charlie Tarr, account director. Former researcher and assistant producer for the BBC, researcher at RDF Media, and assistant producer at Darlow Smithson Productions.
• Karthi Gnanasegaram, media training associate. Former live television reporter on the BBC London Politics Show, presenter on Al Jazeera International News, Sky News, BBC World News and BBC News Channel.
• Milan Starcevic, events co-ordinator. Former special forces officer who has run election logistics for the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the Balkans and as a consultant for the Iraq and Sudan out-of-country elections.

Contact

Address: 33 St. James’s Square,

London,

SW1Y 4JS,

United Kingdom

Phone: +44 7404 063024

Email: enquiries@btpadvisers.com

Website: http://www.btpadvisers.com/

Twitter: BTP Advisers

Resources

• Michael Gillard and Andy Rowell, Former Tory spin doctor advises war crimes Kenyan, Spinwatch, October 2012.
• Katherine Ainger, The PR kingmakers of London town take on Nigeria Spinwatch, 27 March 2015.
• Brian Whitaker, Grovelling in Riyadh, Spinwatch, 24 January 2015.