About
Meet Stephen
He is a PhD research student at Leeds Business School investigating the contribution of public relations to management.
Stephen was previously managing director at Metia Group (2019-2020), an international digital marketing agency. It creates high-performance campaigns using research, content, demand and earned media. His clients included Amazon, BMW, Capita, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
He was Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum (2012-2018), an Omnicom-owned agency responsible for integrating digital and social capabilities in client engagements across the agency’s international network. He provided lead senior counsel on integrated global accounts, including IBM, IKEA and Phillips.
He was President of the CIPR in 2014, during which time he helped return the organisation to its roots of professionalism as set out in its Royal Charter. He is the former chairman of the CIPR Artificial Intelligence panel and Social Media panel. The two groups have led the characterisation of the impact of machines and social media on marketing and PR practice, the media and conversation in the public sphere.
Stephen is the co-editor with Ralph Tench of the fifth edition of Exploring PR and Management Communication, the definitive book on PR theory and practice, published by Pearson in January 2021. His other books include #BrandVandals (Bloomsbury, November 2013), Brand Anarchy (Bloomsbury, February 2012), Platinum (CIPR, September 2018), Share This (Wiley, July 2012) Share This Too (Wiley, September 2013) and Chartered Public Relations: Lessons from Expert Practitioners (Kogan Page, February 2015).
Stephen originally trained as an engineer and a journalist before pursuing a public relations career. He co-founded, managed and sold two award-winning public relations agencies, Rainier PR in 1998 and Speed in 2009.
At Speed, Stephen led the merger of three public relations agencies to develop a modern proposition, service model and workflow. Clients included The Associated Press, Optical Express, The Economist, Symantec, uSwitch for Business and Virgin Media Business. Rainier PR was a technology public relations agency founded in 1998 focusing on technology expertise and a senior client service model. Clients included ARM, ntl (now Virgin Media Business), Intel and Toshiba.
Stephen is a Chartered PR Practitioner, a CIPR Fellow (Hon) and a PRCA Fellow.
Stephen Waddington is the Founder and Managing Partner of Wadds Inc. It is a professional advisory firm that helps agencies and communications teams with planning, strategic decision making and execution.
Meet Sarah
Sarah works within the wider business marketplace and as a professional adviser to creative agencies and comms teams.
Her Free To Thrive service helps busy agency owners (especially parents) deal with overwhelm.
An intelligent strategist, strong communicator and the nemesis of group think, Sarah’s input as a non-executive director (NED) enables organisations to focus on market exploitation and exploration to create long-term value for stakeholders.
She is an IoD ambassador and has over 20 years' experience in helping organisations to articulate their purpose, create value and deliver social impact.
A pioneer of best practice, she was awarded the CIPR’s Sir Stephen Tallents Medal for exceptional achievement in public relations and is the winner of the PRCA’s Outstanding Contribution in Digital Award.
Her CBE was awarded in June 2021 for services to public relations and voluntary sectors.
She is a strong advocate of accountable leadership and women in business and believes in helping young talent break through.
Sarah is a Past President of the CIPR, a member of the Northern Power Women Power List, features on Provoke Media’s Innovator 25 EMEA 2021 list and is a regular speaker at industry events.
She spearheaded and led the CIPR's gender policy work from 2014 onwards and is the founder and editor of #FuturePRoof, a series of books and community aimed at reasserting the role of public relations as a management function and making thought leadership and best practice accessible to all.
In 2021, Sarah co-founded Socially Mobile with Stephen to improve social mobility within the PR industry.
As a Chartered Director Sarah holds the Institute of Directors’ Diploma in Company Direction. She is also a graduate of Oxford Saïd’s Executive Leadership and Cambridge Judge’s Steering Complex Projects programmes.
She completed Non-Executive Director training with NEDA at the London Stock Exchange and holds a certificate in Organisational Leadership from the Institute of Leadership and Management.