Helping the right words be said - and heard - when it matters most
Strategic communications support across the whole organisation - from boardroom narrative to frontline engagement - delivered with clarity, honesty and care
How I can help
The work I do varies enormously - from creating a four-year corporate communications strategy to crafting a single piece of leadership messaging, from writing website content to helping a team navigate a difficult period of change. If it involves words, stories and making communications clearer, more human, or more effective, I'd love to help.
If you’d like to have a chat drop me a note, give me a bell or ping me a message on LinkedIn.
Making Change Make Sense
Change is rarely the hard part. Helping people understand it, believe in it and get behind it - that's where communication either earns its place or lets the organisation down.
I work with leadership teams to build a clear, credible narrative around change - one that's honest about the challenges as well as the direction - and turn that into practical communication that works across the organisation. That means strategies and plans, but also the actual materials: leadership messaging, colleague communications, briefings, toolkits and engagement activity designed to help change land with the people it affects most.
I've led communications through organisational transformation, restructuring, workforce change, mergers and major digital and operational programmes. My background as a journalist means I'm drawn to the human story inside the business story - and that's usually where the most useful communication lives.
Helping Leaders Find Their Voice
The most effective leaders communicate with clarity and honesty, especially when it's difficult. That's rarely accidental - it takes preparation, good judgement and sometimes someone outside the room to help shape the message.
I work closely with executive and senior leaders to help them communicate with confidence across a range of situations: shaping narrative and tone, drafting speeches, presentations and leadership updates, preparing for town halls and Q&As, and advising on how to approach sensitive or high-stakes moments.
Much of this work is about helping leaders strike the right balance - between organisational priorities and human honesty, between confidence and humility, between saying enough and saying too much. I've supported leaders through scrutiny, uncertainty and significant change, and I understand both the strategic and the personal dimensions of that.
Building Colleague Trust
How an organisation communicates day to day - not just in a crisis, but consistently - shapes how colleagues feel about their work, their leaders and the organisation itself. That foundation matters enormously, particularly in periods of growth, change or pressure.
I help organisations improve the clarity, consistency and quality of their internal communication, whether that means developing a communication strategy, improving channels and infrastructure, building leadership visibility or creating practical frameworks that help teams communicate more effectively.
I also have extensive experience in reputation and issues management, supporting organisations through sensitive, high-profile or fast-moving situations in regulated and consumer-facing environments. When something goes wrong, or when scrutiny arrives unexpectedly, calm and credible communication can make a significant difference to how an organisation emerges.
A bit about me
The sixth form magazine I worked on was called Skimpy Grotts - which probably tells you something about both my sense of humour and the seriousness with which we took our editorial duties at the time. But somewhere between the terrible puns and chaotic production days, I discovered that words mattered. That the right ones could make people stop, think, understand something differently - or simply feel reassured at the right moment.
During my teenage years I was a magician’s assistant, a kids’ face painter and a qualified lifeguard. Growing up in Scarborough, the lifeguard part was practically compulsory. Looking back, all of it probably taught me something useful about reading a room, connecting with people and staying calm under pressure - skills that turn out to be surprisingly transferable.
Local journalism came next. Years spent learning how to ask the right questions, find the story underneath the story, and write in a way that respected the audience’s time and intelligence. It’s a discipline that still shapes how I work today. Now I work with organisations and senior leaders to help them communicate through change, pressure and complexity. The contexts may be different - boardrooms rather than newsrooms, transformation programmes rather than front pages - but the instinct is much the same. Find the human story. Make it clear. Make it matter.
I’ve worked across central government, regulated industries, professional services and consumer-facing organisations, helping leaders navigate everything from organisational transformation and operational change through to reputation issues and periods of significant scrutiny. I live in the Buckinghamshire countryside with my husband, our teenage son, and our beautiful Labrador, and love trudging through a muddy field. At my heart, though, I’m still very much a Yorkshire girl - happiest with the sand between my toes and the North Sea reminding everyone who’s in charge.