Agency Growth Forum - Agenda

Rachel is a serial entrepreneur having started seven multi-award-winning professional services businesses, across the marketing spectrum. Her philosophy of promoting and developing talent has won her industry recognition including Sunday Times Best Leader. She is a cross-sector serial NED and also chairs her family engineering business CIS. She was nominated best leader by the Sunday Times in 2012. Rachel’s management consultancy, Brand Spanking supports businesses in establishing best practice, building out their commercial proposition and realising shareholder value. She is currently “entrepreneur in residence” at London Business School inspiring MBA students in entrepreneurship. She is also President of the Business School's Angel Investment Club – Enterprise 100. Her book Start-Ups, Pivots and Pop-ups (available on Amazon) was shortlisted in the 2020 Best Business Book Awards.

Jonny Bentwood heads data and analytics globally at Golin. In his role Jonny enables Golin’s clients to be data-driven. A firm believer that when art is combined with science and decisions purely based on instinct are rejected, then brands will have winning programs. A champion of using data to deliver focus through the customer journey, Jonny has challenged historic approaches to measurement to evolve the approach from descriptive to prescriptive to predictive.

Jonny has worked on global and strategic clients providing counsel for PepsiCo, Walmart, McDonalds, Microsoft, Carlsberg, LEGO, The World Economic Forum, the World Bank and Facebook. He has a successful record in creating award winning analytic and measurement tools including the CEO Impact Index, Relevance Radar, Customer Journey Modelling, Brand Pull, TweetLevel, BlogLevel and the patented Flow140.

Rachael Marshall is co-founder and managing director at the PR firm accountancy provider Magic Digits.

Rachael has a unique helicopter view of the growing pains of independent PR firms and how they can build a solid financial base that will put them in the best position for future growth.

Charlotte is a corporate affairs, reputation, and integrated communications leader focused on protecting/promoting the reputation of complex global businesses across diverse markets/audiences. Her experience in communications consultancies and in-house spans global crisis/issues management, international policy, ESG comms strategy, executive and investor communications, and integrated brand communications campaigns for many global technology organisations.

She is currently VP Global Corporate Communications for Lenovo, a multi-billion-dollar global technology powerhouse, listed in Hong Kong and operating in 180 markets worldwide. She is also board director of the Lenovo Foundation, executive sponsor of Lenovo’s ‘Women in Lenovo’ employee resource group in EMEA and serves on both the company’s ESG oversight committee and crisis management team. Outside of Lenovo Charlotte is a member of the IPSOS Mori Reputation Council, a board director of the European Network for Women in Leadership and is on the advisory council of the Steven’s Initiative (part of The Aspen Institute).

Bieneosa has extensive experience in communications and government affairs, from tech start-ups to FTSE 100 global, matrix, and regulated businesses. She is trusted as a strategic counsellor with excellent stakeholder management skills that help align communication activities with an organisation's aims and objectives and deliver measurable results.

She has significant experience in corporate communications, working for consumer-facing brands, including McDonald's, during its most challenging period. Issues and crisis management were intrinsic to her role, where she was also an official spokesperson.

Clara is a Brand and Communications leader with 20+ years’ experience gained across agencies and in-house. A seasoned storyteller, she helps businesses drive growth by translating complex strategy into campaigns that engage and excite. Clara has developed a specialism of working for organisations embarking on a transformation, specifically looking to shift perceptions, in order to attract new customers.

Rachel is a senior communications professional, business advisor, coach and mentor, with over 25 years in global networks, independent agencies and in-house.

Jo is the co-founder and Chief Client Officer at Hope&Glory. She started the agency with James Gordon-MacIntosh at the end of 2011 having previously worked with him at Seventy Seven PR. Jo has nearly thirty years PR experience always working agency-side. Jo gets a kick out of making sure our clients are happy and ensuring the team are delivering their very best work. She also leads many of our people initiatives and is currently President of industry campaigning group, Women in PR. She is generally the voice of reason in the office, and is good at keeping everyone calm under pressure, a skill she attributes to having two teenage sons at home.

Paul is the co-MD of The Hoffman Agency’s UK business. This follows the successful sale of Paul’s former agency, CCGroup, to The Hoffman Agency, in March 2025.

Paul has spent two decades helping businesses — from disruptive startups to established global players — tell their stories more powerfully. This has given Paul a deep understanding of what truly drives influence. Whether it’s crafting thought leadership, building deep relationships with the right media and analysts, or leveraging global events, Paul focuses on delivering communications that create impact, shape perception, and drive commercial outcomes.

Alongside advising clients, Paul has additional passions, including guiding organisations on GenAI strategy, challenging outdated PR agency business models, advocating for more integrated marketing approaches, speaking up on the challenges faced by neurodivergent people in PR, and regularly analysing how communications is evolving across the telecoms sector.

Olugbeminiyi Idowu is the founder and managing director of Talking Drum Communications, a public relations and communications consultancy that empowers innovative organisations to turn their bold ideas into stories that drive success.

From tailored PR campaigns and media relations to thought leadership and crisis management, Bemi and his team work with technology companies and other innovators to connect with their target audiences by telling the most impactful stories about the work they are doing - accelerating growth, increasing profitability and supporting ongoing success.

He has extensive experience working with a wide range of companies - from established global players to Africa-focussed start-ups, including BT, SanDisk (acquired by Western Digital for $19 billion in 2019), Sage, Zipline, Autochek, TradeDepot, Chowdeck, Vendease, Seamfix, Remedial Health, Nomba, Leatherback and more.

Named Campaign’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 and a Fellow of the University of the Arts London, Kamiqua is recognised as an influential marketing and PR professional. In 2020, Kam used the depth and breadth of her experience to establish Coldr, an award-winning PR and marketing consultancy. Coldr partners with brands and organisations that want to grow, drive change, or evolve with authentic, impactful connections.

Kam also established the UK Black Comms Network to drive much-needed change in the industry and empower Black PR and communications professionals to connect, network, and thrive.