Grayling

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

Back to Lobbying Portal Grayling is a global PR and lobbying group owned by Huntsworth and established in 1981. Other companies in the Huntsworth Group include: Citigate, Quiller, Hudson Sandler, Hunstworth Health and Red.

Grayling has over 50 offices in more than 30 countries. It is headquartered in London and has 9 US offices.

History

• Grayling was founded in London in 1981.
• Its public affairs capabilities started with the formation of Westminster Strategy in 1986 and were gradually expanded to Brussels, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
• Acquired by Lopex in 1988
• RS Live became part of Grayling in 1995 with specialist expertise in event management.
• Lopex sold to Havas in 1999
• In April 2004, Huntsworth plc acquired a 70% stake in Grayling, while the 30% minority shareholding is held by Grayling's senior managers.
• In March 2008 Grayling merged with sister firm Global Consulting Group, both subsidiaries of Huntsworth Plc, to form Grayling Global, focused on public affairs, public relations, investor relations and event management.
• In 2011, parent company, Huntsworth merged two of its companies, Grayling and Dutko, one of Washington's top-earning lobbying firms having bought it in 2009. It became known as Dutko Grayling, but is now known just as Grayling.

Client work

Poisoned farmed Scottish Salmon

Grayling's work for Scottish Quality Salmon was to support their policy communications work with elected members and officials in Edinburgh, London and Brussels. "Our only role was to support SQS to ensure that policymakers were informed of the scientific facts on the issue." (John McGill, Grayling, headd of APPC Scotland)

In January 2004 the Sunday Herald reported:

The US study that sparked the toxic salmon scare has been strongly defended by leading scientists following allegations from the fish farming industry that it was biased and flawed.

"It is based on sound science and the results are undeniable," said George Lucier, former director of the US Department of Health's national toxicological programme and author of more than 200 studies on toxic chemicals. He has been backed by at least three other independent US experts.

The study, by scientists from four US universities and published 10 days ago in the US journal Science, analysed the levels of cancer-causing PCBs, dioxins and pesticides in 700 salmon from around the world. It found that farmed salmon were much more contaminated than wild salmon.

Despite the criticisms that followed, the conclusion has not been seriously challenged. But the subsequent findings - that eating farmed Atlantic salmon "may pose health risks that detract from the beneficial effects of fish consumption" - has provoked bitter argument.

The counterattack has been led by the salmon farming industry, which was forewarned of the study last October. It has alleged the research was biased because it was funded by a trust founded on US oil money.

The role played by the $ 3.8 billion Pew Charitable Trust, which funds research into global pollution, was spelled out in the study, and highlighted by Science magazine, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general federation of scientists. Any suggestion that Pew interfered has been denied by all involved.

Nevertheless, the Scottish salmon farming industry maintains it has been the victim of a global conspiracy. "This was a deliberately engineered food scare orchestrated to attack the salmon farming industry in Scotland," said Brian Simpson, chief executive of Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS).

Science's editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy dismissed the allegations. He said that the authors were all respected members of academic institutions. "Pew funded the study but left the authors free to publish their results without review," he told the Sunday Herald, adding that Science's peer-review process"is among the most rigorous in the scientific community".

The levels of contamination reported by the study have been accepted by both the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS) in the UK.

"The levels of dioxins and PCBs found in this study are in line with those that have previously been found by the FSA," stated the FSA on January 8.

The salmon industry was first alerted to the Science study by a talk given to an aquaculture conference in Vancouver, Canada, on October 27 last year. Charles Santerre, of Purdue University in Indiana, said: "Expect this bombshell to be spun in an unfavourable manner, so I think the industry needs to be prepared for it."

Although Santerre was widely quoted as a leading critic of the Science study last week, it was not always made clear that he is a paid consultant of industry group, Salmon of the Americas.

People

Senior people

• Sarah Scholefield, MD of UK & Republic of Ireland
• Richard Jukes, chair of UK & Republic of Ireland
• Sam Williams, COO
• Jan Simunek, CEO, Continental Europe
• Peter Harris, CEO, USA
• Loretta Ahmed CEO, Middle East, Turkey & Africa
• Chris Tang, CEO, Huntsworth Asia Pacific
• Victor Benady, global creative director at Grayling.

Lobbyists

• Jonathan Curtis, head of public affairs
• Ross Laird, Director of Grayling Political Strategy, Scotland, based in Edinburgh.
• Steven Palmer, US state and local government affairs practice leader. Palmer was the founder and president of the Dayton Group, has worked at pharmaceutical companies TAP Pharmaceuticals, SupplyScape, Bayer and PhRMA, was the director of public affairs at Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and a budget associate and legislative assistant in the US House of Representatives in the early 1990s. He joined Grayling in 2009 as Denver office managing director.

Listed UK lobbyists

As of September 2014-November 2014 Luke Boddice | Alan Boyd-Hall | Leah Bryant | Rikki Butler | Luke Cheadle | Jonathan Curtis | Bobbie Davies | Kathryn Eastwood | Robert Ford | James Ford | Matthew Francis | Robert Girvan | Alistair Gordon | Jay Harman | Rebecca Holmes | Samantha Jay | Richard Jukes | Ross Laird | Patrick Leavey | Rebecca Leech | Craig Ling | James McCollum | Joe Moor | Caroline Narboni | Matthew Revett | Tim Saunders | Mohanvir Singh Saran | Pippa Smith | Peter Stilwell | Jack Storry | Thomas Symondson | Katie Thrift | Tim Watkin

Former employees

• Richard J. Wolff, formerly Vice Chairman of Grayling Global, now Senior Advisor to Kreab Gavin Anderson and Prosek Partners.
• Alison Clarke, former Group Development Director of Huntsworth, stepped down in June 2015.
• David Atterbury Thomas, Grayling's former CFO.
• Michael Burrell, former chairman of GPS, now with lobbying and PR firm Edelman.
• Jo Moore, formerly of Westminster Strategy
• Bill Hamilton, head of comms and stakeholder relations, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority since 2005, leads the Cumbria comms team
• Nigel Kennedy, former group chief executive. Until the 1980s he spent seven years in the oil industry primarily in marketing and public relations, working for Mobil in London and subsequently with Total Oil in London and then in Paris. Is now chairman of Commucan
• Alison Clarke, former CEO, UK & Republic of Ireland. Chairman of the Public Relations Consultants Association, former business development director at Huntsworth PLC and president of Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Clients

Gatwick Airport

On the 18 December 2014 it was confirmed the agency had been appointed to communicate Gatwick's multi-billion transformation programme. The account will be headed up Grayling’s international and network managing director, Susan Hutchinson.

UK lobbying clients

As of 1st June 2015 - 31st August 2015

ABB | Allies and Morrison | Angel Trains | Automatic Vending Association | Battersea Cats & Dogs Home | Bield Housing Association | Blind Veterans UK | BT Scotland | BT Wales | Calor | Carillion | Colleges Scotland | Construction Workers Compensation Scheme | Cummins Turbo Technologies | Earthport | Edinburgh College | Fujitsu Services | Grant Thornton | Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association | Heart Valve Voice | Heriot-Watt University | Hilton Worldwide | Historic Houses Association | IET | Sainsbury | Janssen UK | LLoyds Banking Group | Lockheed Martin | London School of Business and Finance | LXB Retail Properties | National Association of Cider Makers | National Casino Forum | National Grid | National House Building Council | Network Rail | NHS Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group | Patrizia | Peoples Postcode Lottery | Riverside Housing Association | Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Trust | Ryder Cup Europe | SCA | Scottish Rugby Union | Sir Robert McAlpine | States of Guernsey | Stornoway Wind Farm | Taylor Wimpey | Trust Housing Association | UKAS | Wallace Land | West Midlands Reserve Forces and Cadets Association | Wireless Infrastructure Group | WPD.

As of March 2014-May 2014

ABB | Anchor | Angel Trains | Bield Housing Association | British Library | BT Scotland | BT Wales | Calor | Careers Wales | Carillion | CITB-ConstructionSkills | Construction Workers Compensation Scheme | Cyfle Building Skills Forestry | Commission Scotland | Fujitsu Services | GE Healthcare | Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association | Heriot-Watt University | Hilton Worldwide | Historic Houses Association | IET | International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk | J Sainsbury plc | LLoyds Banking Group | Lockheed Martin | London Clubs International | National Grid | National House Building Council | Network Rail | Patrizia | Peoples Postcode Lottery | PNE Wind | Reed Smith | Riverside Housing Association | Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Trust | Ryder Cup Europe | Scottish Rugby Union | Sir Robert McAlpine

• Allianz Worldwide Care
• Allianz Insurance (the UK division of Allianz Group)

Resources

• Grayling Political Strategy, UK Clients and Staff 1.12.03 to 31.05.04
• Grayling UK Clients, PRCA Yearbook 2004

References

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