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.

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.

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).

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

Jo Carr is the co-founder and chief client officer at multiple award-winning agency Hope&Glory PR. Jo has worked in the industry , and within agencies for over 30 years, and in that time has advised clients from IKEA, Airbnb, Uber and Pepsi. Jo gets a kick out of making sure clients are happy and ensuring the Hope&Glory team are delivering their very best work. Jo is behind many of Hope&Glory’s progressive people initiatives and is currently President of industry campaigning group, Women in PR.

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.

Jackie is founder and chair of Cathcart Consulting, a corporate communications and marketing services consultancy specialising in reputation management, agency search and business trouble shooting.

She has more than 40 years’ experience in marketing and public relations and has worked in Europe, America and in Asia for global clients including General Motors, Philips and Rolex.

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.

Nick Braund is the founder of Words+Pixels, the independent PR agency he launched in 2020 to tell the stories of companies shaping the future. By design sector-agnostic, the agency partners with ambitious brands across technology, consumer, and purpose-driven industries, and now works globally with partners in over 20 countries.

In less than six years, Words+Pixels has been named in the FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies, recognised as Boutique Agency of the Year, and ranked among the top five Best UK Consultancies to Work For. The agency’s focus is on sustainable growth, building strong partnerships, and delivering creative excellence. An approach that saw it achieve nearly 50% year-on-year growth in 2024.

Equally important is its commitment to people and culture. Words+Pixels has kept retention at 92%, with no layoffs, no redundancies, and a +9 eNPS. It has also become a founding partner of People Like Us, retained a 0% gender and ethnicity pay gap, and is proudly London Living Wage accredited.

Lee is the founder and CEO of The John Doe Group, a culture first comms shop with offices in London, Manchester and Glasgow. Clients include Guinness, Vinted, IRN-BRU, Bumble and Glenmorangie. Over the last few years, she has been named an AdWeek trailblazer of the year and the Marketing Society’s Inspirational Agency Leader of the Year, while John Doe has received an agency of the year accolade at the PR Moment Awards every year for the past four years. She lives in Brighton with her wife and two children.

Lucy is a Partner at creative agency, The Romans, and is responsible for running UK operations. Over the course of her 18-year career, she has created award-winning work across the globe and advised household name brands such as Barclays, Lidl, Amazon and Heineken.