Brunswick Group

Brunswick offices, Lincolns Inn Fields, central London

The Brunswick Group is an international PR and lobbying firm, headquartered in London. Its founder is Alan Parker, friend of Gordon Brown. Brunswick specialises in financial PR, and Parker is considered to be one of the UK's leading financial PR men (alongside Roland Rudd). It has a blue-chip client list that is the envy of most other agencies. It is one of a handful of key financial PR agencies in the UK, including: FD, Buchanan, Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Pelham PR, Finsbury, and Maitland Consultancy.

Brunswick is seen as both a major force and an enigma - it has steadfastly declined to participate in PR Week's fee income rankings, for example, and Brunswick founder, Alan Parker, rarely grants interviews and is uncomfortable when he becomes the focus of a story. ‘It's bad manners to get between the client and the footlights,' he reportedly says. It also doesn't publish a client list.

Services

Brunswick has ranked at the top or near the top of league tables for financial communications consultancies. It advises clients on public affairs, media and investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, crisis management, international communications and corporate reputation.

On public affairs, Brunswick says:

"Our team includes former senior government advisers and political campaign staff who understand the context in which decisions are taken in government, the relative influence of the stakeholders involved and can advise on the most effective communication of a client's case. We work closely with in-house government relations teams and external lobbying firms to help broaden public support for our client's position and build a better understanding of their business among their relevant government audiences."

CFO Europe reports in March 2006 on its role in corporate deals:

Brunswick has long been seen as epitomising the influence-and-access game in deals circles, something that it is exporting to other centres. Notably, in 2001 Brunswick recruited as head of its US operations Steve Lipin, a former Wall Street Journal M&A reporter with a reputation for aggressively leveraging his newspaper’s franchise to get news scoops on deals. [Brunswick] has had its share of controversy over its aggressive tactics. Also in 2001, for example, a former client, Jupiter Asset Management (which had been acquired by Commerzbank), threatened to sue Brunswick after the PR firm sent a dossier to several London newspapers claiming that Jupiter was in financial trouble.

Political Connections

• Brunswick founder, Alan Parker is a close personal friend of Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah. The prime minister is godfather to one of Parker's children and Sarah used to work at Brunswick. It was Parker who recommended Stephen Carter, former Ofcom chief executive and (briefly) the chief executive of Brunswick, to be the PM's new chief of strategy. When Brown visited China and India at the beginning of 2008, he was accompanied not only by Carter but Parker as well, prompting one observer to ask - was the prime minister getting two advisers for the price of one?

• Conservative leader, David Cameron also attended Parker's wedding, alongside the Browns. Parker was pictured on holiday in South Africa in 2008 with Cameron.

• Previously, in 1999-2000, Brunswick paid more than £5,000 to the Labour Party for 'tickets for dinners', and in 2001 gave £9,000 to Labour.
• Brunswick also donated the services of an employee to the Government to help work on the Financial Services and Markets Bill - legislation which will regulate business in the City and which would provide invaluable information to Brunswick's clients."

• Andrew Hood, a former special adviser to the Labour Party, joined Brunswick in 2002 amid controversy surrounding claims he had been "poached" from the Ministry of Defence by the firm, whose clients Rolls-Royce and Smiths Industries indirectly supply defence firms.

Relations with the media

Brunswick and Parker have "a network of close contacts at the top of British companies and a similar network within the financial press. As an intermediary between these two networks he tries to shape perceptions of companies or business people."

The significance of a financial PR to journalists is explained by David Michie in 1997:

'Even the most energetic reporters know that they have to be somewhat deferential in the presence of a powerful publicist. No one on a national beat can afford to be on the wrong side of [those who]..represent a third of the most quotable sources in the country in the more liberal British media, reporters are less deferential to anyone; but even so the same principle holds true the most important corporate spin doctors include Alan Parker, creator of Brunswick.

Besides hiring senior journalists, Brunswick provides other services to media professionals as the Independent notes in 1995:

It looks like marshmallows around the camp fire in Lincoln's Inn Field for the Daily Telegraph's City office. Staff have been three-line whipped for a bit of weekend bonding on 18 November at what looks suspiciously like the offices of Brunswick, the PR agency. A mysterious memo to staff from Neil Collins, the City editor, explains: "It's an away day to discuss the future of the City Pages. Although attendance is not compulsory those of a paranoid disposition will regret not being there and the rest of us might have a good time (although some work will be done). There will be no counselling. At this stage I do not intend to answer press inquiries. . . A wise move. While they would not confirm it, the navel gaze is apparently being run by Professional Presentations, a human resources consultancy based in Brunswick's offices and run by Lucy Parker, sister of the PR agency's Alan Parker.

However, Brunswick is not beloved by all financial journalists, as this City Diary entry in 2001 shows:

The phones were out of order at Brunswick - the PR company that is to the City what lint is to pockets (annoying and hard to get rid of) - for most of yesterday. Net productivity in the City soared as a result. (If anyone at Cable & Wireless fancies making £50 in return for cutting them off again, give me a call.)

History and structure

The Brunswick Group was founded in 1987. In 2009 it employed 440 people based in 15 offices in 11 countries. It has developed a robust international network - for instance, after establishing a strong presence in New York, Brunswick cracked the US West Coast by opening a San Francisco office and picking up clients of the calibre of Gap, Google, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.

The Brunswick Group has been through many different names and identities. Records available at companies House show that Brunswick used to be called Lincoln Research Ltd. Its name was changed to Brunswick Public Relations Limited on 6 March 1997. Other companies in the group or of which Alan Parker or John Andrew Fenwick are Directors have also gone through name changes.

Subsidiaries

• Cantos
• Lincoln Centre
• Merchant

People

• Alan Parker, Founder. Parker owns 88 percent of Brunswick's Channel Islands holding company, Wynnstay, giving him control of the agency and a stake in the company worth an estimated £114m. Parker's personal assets are thought to be around £6m.
• Tim Burt, former FT media editor.
• David Yelland, former Sun editor.
• Andrew Garfield, former financial Editor of the Independent.
• Andrew Fenwick, Group Finance Director of Brunswick.
• Rupert Young, launched Brunswick's office in Dubai in January 2007. He has been a communications consultant for fifteen years, the last eleven with Brunswick in London. He has a strong track record of advising senior management of Gulf and European businesses on corporate positioning, business launches and IPOs, mergers and acquisitions and the management of major issues.
• Robert Moser, Managing Partner at Merchant
• Michael Lever, Partner (July 2008-). Previously at Credit Suisse where he was a Managing Director in Corporate Broking responsible for relationships with several leading financial institutions. Prior to that, he was a banking analyst specialising in the largest UK institutions and was head of banking research teams at several major investment banks including Credit Suisse and HSBC. Prior to entering stockbroking Michael spent nine years at the Bank of England primarily in Banking Supervision and as Deputy Group Leader of a team responsible for briefing the UK delegations to the IMF and World Bank.
• Gill Ackers. One of the partners leading Brunswick's financial institutions team and also its media group, Gill has particular expertise in strategic positioning, reputation management and profile-raising having worked with a range of listed and unlisted corporates across Europe. Gill has advised on mergers, acquisitions and disposals and her expertise also extends to crisis and issue management, covering everything from crises in corporate performance to financial fraud, blackmail, and investigative journalism into individuals. Before joining Brunswick Gill was head of media for the London Stock exchange. She was recently a member of the FSA's Continuing Obligations theme team, reviewing and advising on policy as part of the comprehensive review of the listing rules.
• Catherine Colloms. Prior to joining Brunswick, Catherine was a senior Diplomat with the Foreign Office. Her eight year tenure included roles as Ministerial speech writer for Douglas Alexander and Geoff Hoon, Political Advisor to the High Representative for Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, and coordinating part of the UK government's humanitarian response to September 11th. She specialises in crisis management, corporate reputation and advises on transactions, financial and public affairs issues.
• Kim Fletcher, Managing Director, Trinity - London. Former editor of The Independent on Sunday and was editorial director - one of three joint managing directors - of Telegraph Group.
• Tim Payne, Managing Partner in the Hong Kong office. He has been with Brunswick for 11 years, working in London, New York and Hong Kong. Before joining Brunswick, he was a campaign director of the UK Liberal Democrat Party, running many of their parliamentary campaigns and by-elections.
• Jonathan Rhodes, partner, London. Former Shadow Cabinet special adviser for the Labour Party, during the four years up to the '97 Election. After the election, he joined PolyGram. He specialises in corporate communications, public affairs, and regulatory PR.
• Graeme Trayner, Partner leading the group's opinion research practice. His roots lie in political campaign research, having worked closely with Labour Party pollsters Deborah Mattinson and Philip Gould.

Former staff

• Rupert Younger, now Finsbury
• Andrew Grant, now Tulchan Communications
• Helen Scott Lidgett
• Sarah Macaulay, wife of Gordon Brown, worked in Brunswick's arts events subsidiary. Macaulay founded the charity PiggyBankKids in 2002, which is run from Brunswick's offices. Macaulay is the co-founder of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications. She marketed Emily's List, the campaign to increase the number of women MPs.
• David Brewerton, (retired). Former City editor at The Times became one of the first financial journalists to move into financial PR when he joined Brusnwick. He is reported to have played a key role in blocking Hanson's takeover of ICI.
• James Rubin, Bill Clinton's former aide, was recruited to Brunswick's political affairs unit in 2001. Rubin reportedly left in April 2004, according to the Observer:

Former state department spokesman James Rubin was hired in a blaze of publicity by top financial PR firm Brunswick some time ago. That gave founder Alan Parker the right to brag that he had bagged one half of the world's most glamorous media couples (Rubin is married to London-based CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour). Now rumour has it that Rubin has quietly quit, although not many people at Brunswick's Holborn HQ will have noticed. 'He was in the office about as often as Johnny Vegas is in the gym,' says a Brunswick insider.

• Andy Browne from the Wall Street Journal (Asia) to work in Brunswick's Beijing office

Clients

Brunswick are reluctant to advertise client details, and do not publish a list of clients. However, it's known that they represent firms below:

Financial sector

• Barclays (PR - Andrew Garfield) | HBoS (advising on takeover 2009) | Alliance and Leicester (PR) | Casenove | Standard Life | FF&P | Intermediate Capital Group | Putnam | Ramius Capital Group | Mizuho International (Japanese Investment Bank)

Environmental / Infrastructure

• In February 2009, Brunswick won the retained financial comms account with the Drax Group, which operates the UK's largest coal-fired power station. The account is understood to be worth in excess of six-figures.
• EDF, the nuclear energy group. The Evening Standard noted in Jan 2008 how EDF's lobbying ties might help its case for new nuclear build in the UK: “EDF Energy is doing the Government's bidding and wants to build four new nuclear power stations in the UK. As City Spy reported, the EDF director on the nuclear side is Andrew Brown, brother of Gordon. Who do EDF use as their PR advisers? Brunswick. And where has Brunswick's CEO Stephen Carter gone? Gordon Brown's office. And who is Gordon Brown godfather to? The son of Alan Parker, the boss of Brunswick.”
• British Airways
• Blue Circle
• Anglo American mining giant have their UK financial PR account with Brunswick on a long term basis, excepting between Dec 2007 and Nov 2009, when they moved to Financial Dynamics due to a perceived conflict of interest while Brunswick were also advising BHP Billiton.
• BHP Billiton

Media

• It was reported in late 2006 that Brunswick worked for media clients including: EMI, NTL, Reed Elsevier, FT publisher Pearson, Reuters, Emap, Time Warner and ITN.

Football

• Newcastle United
• Malcolm Glazer
• MK Dons

When businessman Charles Koppel planned to move Wimbledon Football Club to a new bigger venue in Milton Keynes the fans were infuriated and started to boycott the club. The Wimbledon Independent Supporters Assocation noted that “Mr Koppel’s reaction to the fans demands for a return to the club’s former ground at Plough Lane was to try to mobilise a few local residents into support for the Milton Keynes extravagance. A press statement by these residents rather lost its impact when all media enquiries were referred to Brunswick Public Relations, the PR firm employed by Mr Koppel.”

Other

• Brunswick has also worked for: BT | Safeway | Kellan Group | Rutley European Property Ltd | William Hill | French Connection | LK Bennett | MITIE Group | BowLeven

Previous clients / projects

• They previously worked for Marks & Spencer, Marconi Corporation, and Railtrack (before administration).

• In July 2002 the Wall Street Journal reported that Martha Stewart had hired the Brunswick Group to massage her image in the wake of allegations that she profited from insider trading.

• In March 2004, the controversy over the exaggeration of the oil and gas reserves of Shell Oil resulted in the resignation of the then chairman, Philip Watts, and Walter van de Vijver, who was responsible for exploration and production. In an attempt to manage the crisis Shell hired the Brunswick Group to help it manage the crisis. "Brunswick has recently come on board, but we don't really say much more about what they do," Corrigan told PR Week.

• Hutchison Whampoa 2003

• D1 Oils plc is a UK-based global producer of biodiesel.

• Fleming Family & Partners Capital Management

• St James's Place Wealth Management Advice

Contact details

Map of Brunswick office

16 Lincoln's Inn Fields

London WC2A 3ED

UK

Web: http://www.brunswickgroup.com www.brunswickgroup.com

External links

• Center for Media and Democracy, Former Government Flacks Find Corporate PR Path, Spin of the Day, July 29, 2003.
• Tom Acitelli, "Royal Dutch/Shell enlists Brunswick amid audit, exits", PR Week, April 26, 2004. (Sub req'd)
• "Brunswick Adds H&K's Buckley, Expanding U.S. Offering", 'Holmes Report, April 26, 2001.
• 'Former Albright Aide Rubin Joins Brunswick", Holmes Report, May 05, 2001.
• "Brunswick Scrambles to Deal with Security Lapse", Holmes Report, May 17, 2001.
• "Congressional Staffer Joins Brunswick in D.C.", Holmes Report, April 21, 2003.
• Tom Williams, "Brunswick's Williams to lead 3 flotation charge", PR Week, July 15, 2005. (Sub req'd).
• "City & Corporate: Serco tries to lose PFI label", PR Week, July 22, 2005. (Sub req'd).
• Tom Williams, "Brunswick boosts Hutchison profile", PR Week, August 12, 2005. (Sub req'd).
• "Brunswick boosts M&A arm with trio", PR Week, September 16, 2005. (Sub req'd).