Bell Pottinger Communications

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Bell Pottinger London offices, 330 High Holborn
Bell Pottinger Brussels offices, 40 Rue Breydel

Bell Pottinger Communications, also known as Bell Pottinger Private, is the largest PR and lobbying company in the UK. It was a subsidiary of Chime Communications until a management buy-out led by Tim Bell in July 2012.

Bell Pottinger's chairman is Lord Tim Bell, a friend of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Bell ran the Tory Party's publicity campaigns for the 1979, 1983 and 1987 elections. He was the deputy chairman of Lowe Howard-Spink and Bell alongside Frank Lowe before founding Chime Communications in 1989. Bell received his peerage from former prime minister Tony Blair in 1998.

Twenty-pound-notes.jpg This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.


Subsidaries

Links

People

Senior management 2014[1]

Senior management 2013

Middle East 2013

Former staff

  • Peter Bingle, was previously chair. Left the company in 2012 to set up as an independent consultant
  • Jonathan Oates, former director now chief of staff to UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg
  • Claire Cater, group director. Cater led the Group’s public sector work which included media, public affairs, advertising, marketing, medical education, stakeholder engagement, digital and publishing.

Dinner with ministers

Details of the attendees and seating plans of the Conservative's 2013 summer ball, an event where tickets cost up to £12,000 each and allows attendees to sit at the table with ministers, were leaked by the Guardian. It revealed that chief executive, James Henderson, attended and Patsy Baker, a partner at Bell Pottinger, sat at a table with Chris Grayling MP. [5]

Revolving door

Other politicians and aides who work or have worked at Bell Pottinger include ex-Labour Party staffer Cathy McGlynn (an adviser to Jack Cunningham when he was Agriculture Secretary); Amanda Clow (from Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election), Amanda Francis (a former adviser to Mo Mowlam), Jav Chavda (a former researcher for the 'Rapid Rebuttal Unit'), Nick Williams (a researcher for David Clark) and Jonathan Oates (Chief of Staff to Nick Clegg).

Reputation laundering for repressive regimes

In 2010 the Guardian revealed that PR companies were receiving as much as £2 million for "reputation laundering" for government regimes in Saudi Arabia, Rwanda and Kazakhstan. The Kremlin, Sri Lanka and Zambia were exposed as Chime clients. Lord Tim Bell the chair of Chime Communications and Bell Pottinger Communications defended the firm: “If people want to communicate their argument we take the view that they are allowed to do so.” [6]

Bell is among a handful of lobbying firms that have faced growing concern that London is the place to come to get reputations laundered. As the Evening Standard reported in 2011: 'Top firms such as Bell Pottinger, Brown Lloyd James, Portland and Grayling are coming under intense scrutiny because of their work for foreign governments or in regimes of dubious repute.'

Bell Pottinger Private does not publish a full list of its client-base, which has previously included a raft of controversial and eyebrow-raising names:

The government of Sri Lanka; FW de Klerk, when he ran against Nelson Mandela for president of South Africa; Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted Thai premier, whom protesters claim still controls the country; Asma al-Assad, the wife of the president of Syria; Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus; Rebekah Brooks after the phone-hacking scandal broke; the repressive governments of Bahrain and Egypt; the American occupying administration in Iraq; the polluting oil company Trafigura; the fracking company Cuadrilla; the athlete Oscar Pistorius after he was charged with murder; the Pinochet Foundation during its campaign against the former Chilean dictator's British detention; the much-criticised arms conglomerate BAE Systems – Bell or Bell Pottinger has represented all of them.

Such is its reputation that following the beheading of American journalist James Foley, Bell Pottinger were forced to issue a press release claiming they had not been hired by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). [7]

Sri Lanka

In 2010 the BBC reported that a Sri Lankan government source had hired Bell Pottinger Group to try to enhance Sri Lanka's post-war image for a fee of £3 million a year. The work has involved lobbying UK, UN and EU officials on a range of issues, including assisting Sri Lanka's attempts to prevent the UN secretary general appointing an advisory panel on alleged war crimes committed during the country's civil war.

Bell Pottinger also helped promote the UK visit of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Prof GL Peiris who gave the keynote speech at London's International Institute of Strategic Studies in October 2010. [8]

It is unclear how long or whether the firm continues works for the Sri Lankan government. When asked this question during a rare interview in December 2013 chairman Tim Bell 'affected casualness' and replied 'airily' that, 'We stopped in … 2009? Or 2010? I might have got the dates wrong.' The interviewer wrote that Bell then:

switches seamlessly to a sterner, man-of-the-world tone: "It's a fashionable thing to criticise the way the Sri Lankan government has behaved. David Cameron had one meeting in the north of the country with 200 people who have lost relatives. You have to remember there was a 30-year civil war. The Tamil Tigers weren't exactly gentle, nice people. And for Britain to ponce around the world talking about human rights after what we did in Afghanistan … It's what Winston Churchill called 'our usual export': hypocrisy."[9]

Relationship with the Bahraini Government

Bell Pottinger has held a number of contracts with the Bahrain Government. In 2009 The Economic Development Board (EDB) of Bahrain appointed Bell Pottinger to handle its global FDI (foreign direct investment) with a contract believed to be worth a seven-figure sum in pounds annually. [10] Bell Pottinger also contracted Qorvis to carry out public relations work in the US for Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2010. [11]

Bell Pottinger's work in Bahrain came under pressure in February 2011 for holding these contracts even after seven protesters were killed in a police crackdown on the anti-regime campaign. [12] As a result Bell Pottinger suspended some of its contracts, including with the EDB.[13]

However, this disengagement did not last long as in May 2011, Bell Pottinger was awarded a contract worth US$ 199,000 by Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority for an undefined period of time. [14]. In July 2011, the government's holding company Mumtalakat renewed a contract with Bell Pottinger, worth US$ 853,000 for a period of one year. [15] In January 2012, Bahrain's Economic Development Board awarded Bell Pottinger with a renewed contract for over US$ 10.5 million for a period of two years. [16]. In May 2012 Bell Pottinger's contract with the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution was renewed for a year for about $ 367,000. [17]. The information about these contracts have been taken from the website of the government's Tender Board, and there may be other contracts that are not yet listed.

According to a posting on the Bahraini government’s Tender Board website in October 2012, Bell Pottinger has made bids for the tendered public relations contract. [18] Exact details of the services required by the Bahraini government have not been made public, other than that it involves “PR services” for the Economic Development Board (EDB).

General Augusto Pinochet

In 1998 the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, was arrested in London at the request of Spanish prosecutes requesting his extradition on murder charges. [19] At the time Pinochet, who died in 2006, was a Chilean senator who had claimed diplomatic immunity for the murder of Spanish citizens between 1973-1990. [20]

As Richard Wilson points out in his blog Bell Pottinger Communications relationship with brutal regimes has a longer history than recent contracts with Belarus and Sri Lanka "Bell Pottinger were paid apologists for the brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, lobbying hard to help the General evade justice after he was arrested in the UK on torture charges in 1998." [21]

In 1999 New Internationalist reported that defenders of Pinochet in the Chilean Reconciliation Movement, a UK based organisation, were paying Bell Pottinger Communications to mount a defence of the former dictator in a $310,000 contract. Bell Pottinger Communications had worked on the 1989 presidential campaign of Hernan Buchi, Pinochet's former finance minister and candidate in Chile’s first presidential elections since 1970.

"Bell Pottinger has sent 14 postcards, in the name of the Chilean Reconciliation Movement, to 5,000 British ‘opinion makers’ (including the heads of the top 2,000 corporations, the members of the Houses of Commons and Lords, and the major news media)"
Tim Bell’s public-relations expertise was also employed for a televised meeting between Pinochet and Margaret Thatcher in the house where the ex-dictator is confined. The meeting was arranged by Robin Harris, a senior advisor to Thatcher. Harris has also produced and sent to over 5,000 UK ‘opinion formers’ (the same 5,000 as the postcards, perhaps?) a paper entitled ‘A Tale of Two Chileans: Pinochet and Allende’. Harris’s paper rehearses the same accusation as the postcards – President Allende had planned a ‘self-coup’ with dictatorial aims. Over half of the paper’s footnotes cite a document produced by the dictatorship with CIA assistance shortly after the military coup. Harris also promises shortly an appendix detailing ‘Plan Z,’ the fictitious plot under which Allende and his associates were to eliminate an extensive list of enemies including prominent members of the armed forces." [22]

African Presidential elections

Nigeria

One of Bell Pottinger's former clients is the late Nigerian president Yar'Adua, whom they advised during the 2007 presidential elections. These elections were widely condemned as flawed and violent by international observers and NGOs, Mac van den Berg, a chief EU observer, said the elections had 'fallen far short' of basic international standards and leaked US diplomatic cables alleged the Yar'Adua may have handed out bribes to ensure the outcome of the election. There is however no suggestion that Bell Pottinger had any knowledge of such matters.[23]

In November 2014 it was announced Bell Pottinger would be advising the current Nigerian Prime Minister Goodluck Jonathan in the upcoming April 2015 General Election. The firm worked with election guru Joe Trippi, who has worked in the US with many presidential candidates, and has history in Nigeria after working with Atiku Abubakar on his failed presidential bid in 2007 and with Jonathan on his successful campaign in 2011.[24] Jonathan lost to the challenger Muhammadu Buhari by more than 2.5 million votes.[25]

According to Jonathan Lehrle, a partner at Bell Pottinger who has worked in Zambia, Kenya and Madagascar, there is less hostility to foreign advisers that there used to be and that US or British companies no longer carry a stigma in Africa. The use of a foreign adviser used to suggest 'that parties were out of touch but with leaders like Obama and Cameron hiring international advisers there is less resistance.[24]

Kenya

In 2007 Bell Pottinger were employed to advise Raila Odinga in his bid to become president of Kenya against Uhuru Kenyatta (also advised by a British political consultancy - BTP Advisers). In 2008 Odinga won the race to become president of Kenya.[24]

Pro-nuclear work

Nuclear spin.png This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Bell Pottinger have a history of nuclear clients:

In the late 1990s and up until 2002 its subsidiary Bell Pottinger Public Affairs was the main PR company providing strategic corporate communications advice for the state-run BNFL. In 2002, Bell Pottinger lost the account, although continued to provide financial PR services and ad hoc project services, through sister company Bell Pottinger Communications. [26] [27]

In 2004-05 Bell Pottinger received £24,000 from Nirex to "Provide commmunications advice related to the Nirex pension scheme." [28]

In November / December 2005, Private Eye revealed that Bell Pottinger was receiving £8,000 a month to give strategic advice to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The Eye asked: " Why is the Bell Pottinger PR firm passing on potted biographies of MPs focusing on their supposed attitude to nuclear power to the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA)? The NDA's job, after all, is to clean up the mess left by the old atomic generation, not to promote new nuclear power stations."

The Eye noted that: "The files certainly give the impression that Bell Pottinger thinks the NDA is part of the cosy nuclear club rather than a body charged with sorting out some of the worst problems created by the industry. In its bidding document Bell Pottinger emphasised that its chairman Kevin Murray 'worked on the BNFL account during a tumultuous four-year period'. It also said Bell Pottinger director Tim Walker was a 'former special adviser to Jack Cunningham' when he was a very pro-nuclear MP and spent 'more than a decade closely involved in the politics of the nuclear industry'. [29]

Using the Freedom of Information Act, NuclearSpin obtained a copy of Bell Pottinger's pitch to the NDA. It underlined the extent of the companies involvement with the nuclear industry. It states that Bell Pottinger's consultants "have worked in a variety of capacities with the nuclear industry. These include:

  • Providing strategic advice and support for the Chairman and Chief Executive of BNFL including crisis management
  • Advising BNFL on corporate and financial communications
  • Developing day-to-day public affairs programmes for BNFL and the BNIF
  • Working with Parliamentarians with interests in the nuclear industry
  • Monitoring and tracking nuclear issues ranging from Parliamentary committees to public enquiries
  • Directly managing the in-house communications for the UKAEA and AEA Technology through privatisation
  • Briefing and rehearsing industry executives appearing before Select Committees." [30]

The NDA's briefing paper for potential PR consultants boasted that the "NDA is not unique in being an organisation committed to open and transparent engagement with stakeholders, but it may well be the first organisation that has such objectives built in to its statutory requirements". Nevertheless, Bell Pottinger's successful pitch includes:

  • "Advising on the handling of particular announcements identifying the issues and bear traps in advance, advising on messaging, media strategy and tactics, questions and answers"
  • "Advising on an appropriate contact programme ie who are the journalists that should be courted, what are their issues, how best to handle them"
  • "Providing off the record information". [30]

Refusal to join the Association of Professional Political Consultants

Update: Bell Pottinger finally joined the PRCA, the rival trade assocation to the APPC, in March 2010,[31] and the APPC in May 2013. However it reportedly still does not publish a full list - in an interview in December 2013 chairman Tim Bell cited commercial confidentiality or official secrecy when asked if Bell still worked with the Sri Lankan government.

In February 2008, it emerged that Bell Pottinger was one of three agencies refusing to join the APPC, following a committee inquiry chaired by Labour MP Tony Wright. Despite attempting to "make amends" by drawing up its own code of conduct, the controversy surrounding Bell Pottinger's steadfast refusal to register resulted in chairman Peter Bingle giving evidence to MPs at the Public Administration Select Committee.[32]

Clients

Bell Pottinger Private does not publish a full list of its client-base, which has previously included a raft of controversial and eyebrow-raising names:

The government of Sri Lanka; FW de Klerk, when he ran against Nelson Mandela for president of South Africa; Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted Thai premier, whom protesters claim still controls the country; Asma al-Assad, the wife of the president of Syria; Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus; Rebekah Brooks after the phone-hacking scandal broke; the repressive governments of Bahrain and Egypt; the American occupying administration in Iraq; the polluting oil company Trafigura; the fracking company Cuadrilla; the athlete Oscar Pistorius after he was charged with murder; the Pinochet Foundation during its campaign against the former Chilean dictator's British detention; the much-criticised arms conglomerate BAE Systems – Bell or Bell Pottinger has represented all of them.
Following the beheading of American journalist James Foley, Bell Pottinger were forced to issue a press release claiming they had not been hired by the group who call themselves Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). [33]

September 2015-November 2015

Affinity Water | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Atos IT Services UK Limited | Bank of Ireland | BL Developments Limited | BlackOnyx Group | British Gas | British Horse Racing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Centrica | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | DS Smith plc | Equitable Members Action Group | Gazprom | Hermes GPE Infrastructure Fund LP | Hermes Infrastructure LP | Horticultural Place Developments Limited | Imperial Tobacco | Johnston Press | LMS City Road Limited | Lodha Group | New West End Company | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Rentokil Initial plc | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | Soma Oil & Gas | Southbank Center | TalkTalk | The Unite Group | TSB | Tyrell Place Limited | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | West Horsley Place Developments Ltd | Wren House Infrastructure Management Limited | Yahoo! UK & Ireland [34]

June 2015-August 2015

Affinity Water | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Anglia Natural Gas SRL | Arun District Council | Bank of Ireland | BL Developments Limited | Black Onyx Group | Bristol Airport | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Cargo Logic Air UK | Centrica | Chronicle Partners LLP | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | DS Smith plc | Equitable Members Action Group | Fenton Whelan | Friends Life | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Johnston Press | Lodha Group | Maples and Calder | Monarch Group | New West End Company | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Quatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | Soma Oil & Gas | Soutbank Centre | TalkTalk | The Unite Group | TSB | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | Xcite Energy | Yahoo! UK & Ireland[35]

March 2015-May 2015

All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Anglia Natural Gas SRL - Oil & Gas Exploration | Arun District Council | Associated British Ports | Bank of Ireland | BL Developments Limited | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Centrica | Chronicle Partners LLP | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | DS Smith plc | Dukes Lodge (Guernsey) Ltd | Elysian Residences | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Fenton Whelan | Friends Life | Hach Lange | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Johnston Press | Lodha Group | Maples and Cider | Monarch Group | New West End Company | Nuclear Industry Association | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | Talk Talk | The Unite Group | TSB | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | Xcite Energy | Yahoo! UK & Ireland [36]

December 2014-February 2015

All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Anglia Natural Gas SRL | Arun District Council | Associated British Ports | Bank of Ireland | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Centrica | Chronicle Partners LLP | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | Dukes Lodge (Guernsey) Ltd | Elysian Residences | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Fenton Whelan | Friends Life | Hach Lange | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Johnston Press | Lodha Group | Maples and Calder | Monarch Group | New West End Company | Nuclear Industry Association | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | SOCO International plc | TalkTalk | The Unite Group | TSB | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | Xcite Energy[37]

September 2014-November 2014

All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Anglia Natural Gas SRL | Arun District Council | Associated British Ports | Association of Drainage Authorities | Bank of Ireland | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Centrica | Chronicle Partners LLP | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | Dukes Lodge (Guernsey) Ltd | Elysian Residences | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Fenton Whelan | Friends Life | Government of Serbia | Hach Lange | Hays plc | HM Treasury | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Lodha Group | London School of Business and Finance | Monarch Group | Nuclear Industry Association | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | Scotia Gas Networks | TalkTalk | The Unite Group | TSB | University of Sussex | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | Xcite Energy[38]

June 2014-August 2014

60 SA Limited | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Anchorage Capital | Arun District Council | Associated British Ports | Association of Drainage Authorities | Bank of Ireland | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Centrica | Chronicle Partners LLP | Deloitte | Derwent London | Destination Bristol | Direct Marketing Association | Dukes Lodge (Guernsey) Ltd | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Family Mosaic | Fenton Whelan | Friends Life | Government of Serbia | Hach Lange | Heart of London | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Lodha Group | London School of Business and Finance | Nuclear Industry Association | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Royal London Society for Blind People | Saab | Scotia Gas Networks | Serbian Progressive Party | TalkTalk | The Unite Group | TSB | University of Sussex | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK | Xcite Energy[39]

March 2014-May 2014

60 SA Limited | Aberdeen Asset Management | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Associated British Ports | Bank of Ireland | Barrow Cadbury Trust | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Central London Commercial Estates Ltd | Centrica | Corporate City Developments No.2 Ltd | Deloitte | Derwent London | Destination Bristol | Dialogue Advisory Group | Direct Marketing Association | ENRC | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Family Mosaic | Friends Life | Frontier Estates | Government of Serbia | Hach Lange | Heart of London | Iglo | Imperial Tobacco | Latvian Non-Citizens' Congress | Lodha Group | Monarch | Murco | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Project Met Grape Street Ltd | Provident Financia | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Rivada Networks | Royal London Society for Blind People | Saab | Scotia Gas Networks | TalkTalk | Temasek | The Hospital Club | The Unite Group | Tidal Lagoon Power | TSB | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK [40]

December 2013-February 2014

Aberdeen Asset Management | Alderton Park Ltd| All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Associated British Ports | Association of Drainage Authorities | Bank of Ireland | Barrow Cadbury Trust | Black Onyx Developments Ltd | Bristol Green Capita | British Horseracing Authority | Brookfield Multiplex | Canary Wharf Group | Central London Commercial Estates Ltd | Centrica | Chartered Institute of Arbitrators | Clivedale Ventures | Codemasters | Corporate City Developments No.2 Ltd| Cuadrilla | Defence Infrastructure Organisation | Deloitte | Dialogue Advisory Group | Direct Marketing Association | DSM | ENRC | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Family Mosaic | Friends Life | Frontier Estates | Gala Coral | Good Energy | Heart of London | Imperial Tobacco | Komixx Entertainment | Lodha Group | London Councils | Monarch | National Grid | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Orion Capital Managers | Premier Oil | Project Met Grape Street Ltd | Provident Financial | Qatari Diar | Responsible Gambling Trust | Saab | Scotia Gas Networks | Stannah | TalkTalk | Thames Water | The Hospital Club | Tidal Lagoon Power | Veolia | Waitrose | WaterUK [41]

September 2013-November 2013

Aberdeen Asset Management | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Bank of Ireland | Barrow Cadbury Trust | Birds Eye | Black Onyx Developments Ltd | Canary Wharf Group | Central London Commercial Estates Ltd | Chartered Institute of Arbitrators | Clivedale Ventures | Codemasters | Corporate City Developments No.2 Ltd | Cuadrilla | Deloitte | Dialogue Advisory Group | Direct Marketing Association | DSM | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Family Mosaic | Friends Life | Frontier Estates | Gala Coral | Good Energy | Government of Serbia | Grantham Properties | Guildford Borough Council | Heart of London | Imperial Tobacco | Komixx Entertainment | London Councils | Lothian Partners | Monarch | National Grid | OGN Group | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Orion Capital Managers | OSI Group | Prime Minister's Office of the United Arab Emirates | Project Met Grape Street Ltd | Provident Financial | Prysmian | Qatari Diar | Quantum Alpha | Responsible Gambling Trust | Royal London Society for Blind People | Saab | SABMiller | St James's Place | Stannah | TalkTalk | Thames Water | The Hospital Club | Tidal Lagoon Power | Veolia | Waitrose [42]

June 2013-August 2013

Aberdeen Asset Management | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Bank of Ireland | Berkeley Group | Brockton Capital | Canary Wharf Group | Chartered Institute of Arbitrators | Codemasters | Cuadrilla | Deloitte | DGRE Developments | Direct Marketing Association | DSM | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Government of Serbia | Grantham Properties | Heart of London | Imperial Tobacco | Komixx | National Grid | NT Advisors | OGN Group | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Orion Capital | Park Group | Powerperfector | Precise | Provident Financial | Prysmian | Qatari Diar | Quantum Alpha | Red Bull | Responsible Gambling Trust | Rio Tinto | Saab | SABMiller | Scottish Widows Investment Partnership | Sirius Minerals | Stannah | TalkTalk | Telford Homes | Thames Water | TPG | Waitrose | Walpole [43]

March 2013-May 2013

Aberdeen Asset Management | All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders | Bank of Ireland | Berkeley Group | Borealis | Brockton Capital | Canary Wharf Group | Chartered Institute of Arbitrators | China National Offshore Oil Corporation | Codemasters | Cuadrilla | Deloitte | DGRE Developments | Direct Marketing Association | DSM | Equitable Members Action Group | Etihad | Grantham Properties | Imperial Tobacco | Maersk Oil | Morgan Sindall | National Grid | News International | NT Advisors | Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan | Orion Capital Managers | Ovo Energy | Park Group | Powerperfector | Precise | Provident Financial | Prysmian | Qatari Diar | Quantum Alpha | Red Bull | Responsible Gambling Trust | Rio Tinto | RWE npower renewables | Saab | SABMiller | Scottish Widows Investment Partnership | Sirius Minerals | Stannah | TalkTalk | Telford Homes | TPG | Voreda | Waitrose | Walpole | Westfield [44]

December 2012-February 2013

Aberdeen Asset Management | Ascertiva | Bank of Ireland | Berkeley Group | Canary Wharf | China National Offshore Oil Company | Chartered Institute of Arbitration | Codemasters | Cuadrilla | Deloitte | Derwent London | Direct Marketing Association | DSM | Etihad | Equitable Members Action Group | Fortune Forum | G4S | Grantham Properties | GVA Second London Wall | Hach Lange | Imperial Tobacco | Inmarsat | Intellectual Property Lawyers Association | LXB Properties | Maersk Oil | Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company | Mondelez | National Grid Holdings | National Grid Property | Oil & Gas UK | Ovo Energy | Park Group | PowerPerfector | Premier Oil | Provident Financial | Prysmian | Qatari Diar | Red Bull | Responsible Gambling Trust | Rio Tinto | Royal Mail Estates | Saab | Sam Laidlaw | SABMiller | Sirius Minerals | Stannah | STL Technologies | Talk Talk plc ]] | Texas Pacific Group | The Hospital Club | Threadneedle | Viktor Yushchenko | Vanquis | Voreda | Waitrose | Water UK | Westfield [45]

December 2010 to February 2011

Alstom Power | Anadarko | Ascertiva | Aspers | Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers | Astrazeneca | BAE Systems | BACTA | Bank of Ireland | Berkeley Homes | BT MPP | Canary Wharf | Capital One Partners | Carlyle Group | Citibank NA | Constellation | Courtauld Institute |Deloitte | Derwent London| Eclipse Hotels | Emirates | Equitable Members Action Group | Fluor | Food and Drink Federation | Frasers – Camberwell | Global Warming Policy Foundation | Government of Bahrain | GSG Holdings | Historic Royal Palaces | HomeSun | Imperial Tobacco | Inmarsat | Jacobs | Kellogg’s | Ladbrokes | Law Society | Mercedes-Benz | Motor Sports Association | National Grid Commercial | National Grid Property | Park Group | Permira | Places for People |Port of Dover | Port of London Authority | Press Complaints Commission | Provident Financial | Red Bull |Rio Tinto |Rolls Royce | Royalton Ltd | Stannah | St James | Sunderland City Council | TAG Farnborough Airport | Tottenham Hotspur FC | Treasury Holdings | University and College Union | Visteon | Voreda – Woodlands | Waitrose [46]

Bell Pottinger's past clients have included:

Nike | BSkyB | Natwest | BNFL | BP | AEA Technology | GlaxoSmithKline |Prudential | BAE Systems[47] | Rolls Royce |[48]MBDA | [49] | Libyan National Council - although no contract had yet been signed in June 2011, according to Lord Bell: "Bits and pieces are going on,’ ... ‘We are involved in it all, but no one has made any decision and contract. At the moment, the work we are doing for them is informal. Whether we will get in a situation with people in which it will come to something, I’m not sure."[50] | Mohammed El Senussi, the exiled ‘crown prince’ of Libya (since 1988)[50] | Economic Development Board of Bahrain - remit was exp­anded to support the government of Bahrain during uprisings earlier in 2011.[50]

Closing offices

In June 2015 Bell Pottinger closed its Brussels public affairs office and made redundancies at its London office as part of a natural streamlining and restructuring process to ensure efficiency at the business. CEO James Henderson said the closure of the Brussels office had resulted in the departure of three consultants and that further redundancies will happen in London but none of the public affairs staff will be affected.[51]

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Address:Holborn Gate,
330 High Holborn,
London,
WC1V 7QD
Telephone: +44 20 3772 2500
Email: info@bellpottinger.com
Website: www.bell-pottinger.co.uk

Resources

See: Fracking lobbying firms

Notes

  1. ↑ Key People Bell Pottinger, accessed September 2014
  2. ↑ Bell Pottinger secures Tom Leigh as new CFO Bell Pottinger, 6 November 2014, accessed 6 November 2014
  3. ↑ Sara Luker, Rebekah Brooks hires Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson to handle media, prweek.com, 18 July 2011, 8:55am
  4. ↑ by Mark Banham, Tim Wilkinson takes charge of Bell Pottinger Middle East, PRWeek, 12 December 2013
  5. ↑ Robert Booth, Nick Mathiason, Luke Harding and Melanie Newman Tory summer party drew super-rich supporters with total wealth of £11bn The Guardian, 3 July 2014, accessed 14 October 2014
  6. ↑ The Drum, London based PR firms stand accused of reputation laundering 4th August 2010, accessed 14th December 2011
  7. ↑ [1], accessed September 2014
  8. ↑ Saroj Pathirana , Sri Lanka 'pays PR firm £3m to boost post-war image', BBC Sinhala Service, BBC News South Asia website, 22 October 2010, acc 15 November 2013
  9. ↑ Andy Beckett, Dodgy regime? Unruly protesters? Bell Pottinger can help, The Guardian, Monday 9 December 2013 19.01 GMT, acc 15 December 2013
  10. ↑ Alec Mattinson, Bahrain passes brief on to Bell Pottinger, PR Week, 14 January 2009, accessed 18 November 2013,
  11. ↑ Qorvis FARA Exhibit AB to Registration Statement for Government of Bahrain via Bell Pottinger (Aug 6, 2010), US Dept of Justice, accessed 18 November 2013
  12. ↑ Bell Pottinger's work for Bahrain Government under the spotlight, PRWeek, accessed 18 November 2013,
  13. ↑ Alec Mattinson, Bell Pottinger's Bahrain brief suspended amid country's crisis, PR Week, 7 April 2011, accessed 18 November 2013,
  14. ↑ [2], accessed 18 November 2013,
  15. ↑ [3], accessed 18 November 2013,
  16. ↑ [4], accessed 18 November 2013,
  17. ↑ Doc Name, accessed 18 November 2013,
  18. ↑ Tender, accessed 18 November 2013.
  19. ↑ BBC News, World: Europe Pinochet arrested in London, 17th October 1998, accessed 18th December 2011
  20. ↑ BBC News, World: Europe Pinochet arrested in London, 17th October 1998, accessed 18th December 2011
  21. ↑ Richard Wilson, Pinochet, Bell Pottinger, and “reconciliation” accessed 18th December 2011
  22. ↑ Alejandro Reuss, Peddling Miracles And Amnesia issue 314 - July 1999, accessed 18th December 2011
  23. ↑ Melanie Newman Lobbying's Hidden Influence: The firm ‘trusted by world leaders’ The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 25 November 2011, accessed 3 February 2015
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Lobbying in Africa: Nightmare on K street The Africa Report, 28 November 2014, 3 February 2015
  25. ↑ BBC Nigeria election: Muhammadu Buhari wins presidency, 1 April 2015, accessed 20 April 2015.
  26. ↑ H. Williams, 'BNFL Takes On Finsbury As Dewhurst Wraps Up Revamp', PR Week, 5 July, 2002.
  27. ↑ P. Simpson, 'WSW Picks Up BNFL Public Affairs Work', PR Week, 22 April, 2002
  28. ↑ David Wild, Freedom of Information Request, Letter to Jean McSorley, Senior Advisor to Greenpeace UK, 15 July 2005.
  29. ↑ Spinwatch website
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Bell Pottinger Communications, in FOIA release from NDA to NuclearSpin, February 2006.
  31. ↑ PRCA, press release, March 2010
  32. ↑ Staff writers, "Lobbying inquiry zooms in on APPC non-members", PR Week UK, 21.02.08, accessed 10.09.10
  33. ↑ Bell Pottinger has not been hired by the islamic state, accessed September 2014
  34. ↑ Bell Pottinger Political clients, Sep-Nov15, APPC.org, accessed 2 February 2016
  35. ↑ [Pottinger LLP Register 1st June-31st August 2015APPC, accessed 28 September 2015
  36. ↑ Register 1st March 2015-31st May 2015APPC, accessed 29 September 2015
  37. ↑ Register 1st December 2014 - 28th February 2015 APPC, accessed 9 March 2015
  38. ↑ Register 1st September 2014 - 30th November 2014 APPC, accessed 15 January 2015
  39. ↑ 1st June 2014 - 31st August 2014 APPC, accessed 16 October 2014
  40. ↑ APPC Register for 1st March 2014 - 31st May 2014, accessed September 2014
  41. ↑ Register for 1st December 2013 – 31 February 2014 ‘’APPC’’, accessed 1 October 2014
  42. ↑ Consultancies – September to November 2013 PRCA, accessed 1 October 2014
  43. ↑ Consultancies – June to August 2013 PRCA, accessed 1 October 2014
  44. ↑ Consultancies – March to May 2013 PRCA, accessed 1 October 2014
  45. ↑ Consultancies – December 2012 to February 2013 ‘’PRCA’’, accessed 1 October 2014
  46. ↑ PCRA, PRCA Public Affairs Register – December 2010 to February 2011 accessed 7th December 2011
  47. ↑ David Singleton, Bell Potinger sets sights on security industry, PRWeek, 14 December 2007, p. 1.
  48. ↑ Singleton, ibid.
  49. ↑ Singleton, ibid.
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 50.2 Matt Cartmell, Bell Pottinger Aids Anti-Gaddafi Libyan National Transitional Council, PRWeek, 08 June 2011, accessed 15 June 2011
  51. ↑ Rod Muir Bell Pott shuts shop in Brussels Public Affairs News, 1 June 2015, accessed 1 June 2015.
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