A Psychology graduate of University College London, Neil started his career in 1973 as a management trainee with the De La Rue Group before joining Guinness to develop his interest in Marketing.

After 10 years ‘on the client side’ he joined Countrywide Communications (now Porter Novelli) where he focused initially on building a substantial advertising agency to parallel the small but fast growing Public Relations consultancy.

Having built the advertising agency to 50 people, he became Group MD in 1993 and worked with Peter Hehir (chairman) to develop and implement the ‘go global’ strategy which saw Countrywide merge with Porter Novelli in the US, open or acquire numerous offices across the world and become one of the top 3 International PR Groups with more than 100 offices across 50 countries.

In 2000 following Peter Hehir’s retirement, Neil was appointed CEO of Porter Novelli Europe with responsibility for 50 offices across EMEA.  He sat on the global board of Porter Novelli International with responsibility for Strategic Development.

Neil ‘retired’ from Porter Novelli in April 2004 after 22 years with the firm to establish his own management consultancy aimed at helping other firms improve their commercial success.  He regularly lectures, speaks at conferences and trains directors on commercial management. 

Neil is the author of the widely acclaimed book ‘Managing Professional Communications Agencies’ published in 2007.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was awarded the Chartered Institute of Public Relations ‘Norman Manners Award’ in 2007 for the PR Professional of the Year.  He was appointed as a Founding Fellow of the PRCA in 2010 for services to the PR industry.