Senior Adviser · London · With the firm since 2020
Geoffrey Bannard
A former editor of a regional daily newspaper who reads clients’ statements as a newsroom would, usually the night before they are published.
Geoffrey Bannard is a senior adviser to the firm. He reads clients’ statements, announcements and interview briefings as a newsroom would read them, usually late in the evening before they are published, and tells the partners what the first paragraph of the story will say.
He was a journalist for thirty-eight years: a reporter on two evening papers, a news editor, and for eleven years the editor of a regional daily newspaper. He joined the firm in 2020, two years after leaving the newspaper.
He has a rule, which the firm has adopted, that no statement should contain a sentence its author would be embarrassed to hear read aloud on the local radio news. He says the rule has improved more statements than any amount of strategy.