James is a Founding Partner of Aspect. With 16 years of working in corporate communications consultancy, he brings clear thinking and a direct approach to the full range of communication activities that businesses and organisations need to deliver effectively, so that communications plays as full and professional a part in achieving corporate objectives as any other function in the organisation.
James has a classic politically-inspired communications background. After working in the US Congress and for the UK Labour Party, James took the path through political lobbying, then managing business issues to full strategic corporate communications. Before launching Aspect in November 2004, he worked at senior levels in three of the global communications networks, for BSMG / Weber Shandwick, and Ketchum, finally leaving Hill & Knowlton as Managing Director, International Corporate Communications.
James' time in corporate communications has seen him work on some of the highest profile corporate issues around, including Shell and the Brent Spar, McDonalds and BSE and the GM seed companies and ‘Frankenstein foods’. He has managed M&A communications internally and externally, devised global media and corporate reputation-raising campaigns for major US and European multinationals, driven Europe-wide issue-based and political campaigns and developed internal management and employee motivation programmes. At home around the board-table, James seeks to raise the role of communications management so that it becomes a core and respected business discipline.
A mixed Irish-English background and a French wife means James is an internationalist at heart – this internationalism expressed not only through the constant search for tickets for rugby internationals, but also a passion for travel that has seen him visit every continent on earth. Never forgetting home, however, James is a keen follower of Bristol sport, a reader and a walker of his dog, Phil.