Jefferson Communications

Jefferson Communications is a lobbying and PR company based in the City of London. It was set up in 2003 by Anthony Painter and Ian Lindsley, formerly of The Communication Group. Their website states that "Our business is influencing people and events on behalf of our clients...By nurturing close, working relationships with decision makers, the media and beyond, we ensure that as our client, you are able to achieve your communications objectives."

People

Current staff

• David Fanthorpe. He became as Associate at Jefferson in September 2005 and was previously a Director at Grayling and at Ketchum. Before becoming a consultant, Fanthorpe was a fast-track Whitehall trainee and later deputy Director of the Conservative research department.
• David Felton
• Neil Lindsay
• Ian Lindsley, founder. Lindsley worked for the Labour Party for a year in parliament in 1990 (on secondment from a trade union). In 1991, he set up and ran a corporate and financial PR company in Beijing, China and moved to Santiago, Chile in 1994 to manage exchange programmes with the UK. From 1996 onwards, he was a Director at Shandwick and Burson-Marsteller, then moved to The Communication Group as MD before leaving to start Jefferson in 2004. He has expertise in the property, healthcare, competition, financial services, retail and transport sectors offering strategic communications advice. He is a member of the executive committee of the Great Britain China Centre
• Chris Murray
• Fran O’Leary
• Anthony Painter
• Ben Russell
• David Wild

Former staff

• James Elder. Elder was the last Private Secretary to the late Sir Edward Heath and latterly Secretary of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation of which he is now a trustee. He has also advised successive shadow defence secretaries and members of the House of Commons Defence Committee on a wide range of defence issues since 1997. James has a BA in history from University College, London and a MA in War Studies from King’s College, London. His interests are foreign affairs and defence, public administration and constitutional reform.
• Lara Correia
• Dave Roberts
• Tony Sophoclides
• Charlie Burgess

New Labour connection

In 20 April 2004 the head of Jefferson Communications was present at a meeting at Labour's Old Queen Street headquarters, held to address concerns "that big business is falling out of love with the party in favour of the Tories." The meeting discussed plans "to woo leading players in the City of London, as a way of countering Tory moves to rebuild links with the square mile." Other PR companies represented at the meeting were Finsbury and Lexington Communications. The director of the Social Market Foundation also attended.

Clients

Clients listed in 2009: BBraun | BD | British Land | Colonnade | Energy Solutions | Foodvest | Heron | RWE | Land Securities | L&G | MBDA | RBS | Schroders | Stanhope | Treasury Holdings UK | Unison | UPP | Westfield

Jefferson Communications also lobbied for the Travel Association ABTA and the Federation of Tour Operators at the 2005 Labour Party conference in Brighton, corporate groups subsequently merged in July 2008 to create "a still more powerful and authoritative voice for the travel industry". Contact details for Ian Lindsley of Jefferson Communications communications were included on a January 2005 press release from the London School of Economics which detailed the findings of a two year research project on urban neighbourhoods in London funded by the property developement corporation Minerva PLC - suggesting that Minerva are a client of Jefferson Communications.

Contact

• Address:

Jefferson

3 London Wall Buildings

London

EC2M 5PD

• Phone: +44 (0)20 7256 8912
• Fax: +44 (0)20 7256 9086
• Website: http://www.jeffersoncommunications.co.uk