Our People
Our team draws its experience from having worked globally across media, government, the third sector and business. We are politically engaged and independently minded.
We have worked with governments across the world, liaised with diplomats, forged reputations for our clients and led global campaigns. We work to a simple mission – to craft and deliver strategies that aid commercial goals, help clients communicate better with stakeholders, lobby government on purpose-led change, and manage reputations effectively.
Leon Cook
Founder Partner
Leon has more than 20 years experience as an international government relations and corporate communications specialist, having worked for four of the largest global communications agencies. He has spearheaded government affairs for multiple foreign governments and leading corporates, overseen communications and change management as a seconded department head within two multinationals, and worked in-house for the likes of Anglo American and SONY.
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Leon helps leading brands connect with both Westminster and governments in major capitals and has worked on award-winning advocacy campaigns. As the Founder of Atticus, Leon is responsible for overall brand strategy and client campaign development across the company’s diverse client base, providing senior counsel on media and political strategy. Leon has broad sectoral client experience, focussing in recent past on corporate sustainability and ESG strategy. He is a former Vice-President of the CIPR Public Affairs committee and currently serves as a PRCA awards judge and member of the Public Affairs Board Executive Committee.
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Sir Charles Napier
Founder Partner
Charlie has been working in politics and communications for 23 years, both as an advisor and as a former local authority councillor. He previously worked for a number of the UK’s public affairs agencies before co-founding Atlas Partners in 2015, picking up the 2019 PRCA Public Affairs Agency of the Year Award.
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Charlie’s clients have encompassed a wide variety of sectors and he has particular experience in the culture, media, sport, energy, charitable and environmental worlds.
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Senior Team
Matt Sutton
Suzi Whyte
Michael Dowsett
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Ella Rose
Craig Davidson
Patrick Adams
Jonathan Webb
Elena Campbell
Julia Stewart
Senior Counsel
Suzy Stride
Senior Counsel
Suzy has been working in Labour party politics and policy for over 20 years including working as a special advisor for the Shadow Cabinet and standing for Parliament in Harlow in 2015.
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She has huge experience of advising Third Sector organisations and has run successful campaigns on behalf of different charities and NGOs. She played a pivotal role in a number of international human rights campaigns and worked for City Gateway for over a decade advocating and lobbying for young people, apprenticeships and jobs for young people.
She has particular expertise on political stakeholder management and policy insight, has worked as a political commentator on GB News and Sky News and spoken a number of times on the main stage at Labour Party conference. A graduate of Cambridge University, she is also a joint author of a book on Englishness.
She has particular expertise on political stakeholder management and policy insight, has worked as a political commentator on GB News and Sky News and spoken a number of times on the main stage at Labour Party conference. A graduate of Cambridge University, she is also a joint author of a book on Englishness.
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Peter Cardwell
Senior Counsel
Peter Cardwell has worked at the highest level of the UK Government for three-and-a-half years as a senior ministerial adviser to four Cabinet Ministers in four departments: the Ministry of Justice; Home Office; Northern Ireland Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.
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As well as working with Atticus, he is Political Editor of talkRadio and presenter at the station. A graduate of Oxford and Fulbright Scholar to Columbia University in New York, he spent 10 years in broadcast journalism before government, including stints at BBC Newsnight and Question Time. He is also the author of the book, ‘The Secret Life of Special Advisers’.
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Simon Gentry
Senior Counsel
Simon Gentry is one of the most experienced public affairs specialists in London. In the last few years he has worked with the senior leadership of Tide, the open banking platform for smaller businesses, as well as ClearBank and EuroNet, the financial services conglomerate.
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He also advises a range of organisations on open financial services and payments. Simon’s career has spanned a number of political capitals, including four years spent in Brussels. He has enjoyed stints at the likes of SmithKline Beecham and GSK while also having served as the Head of European Affairs at the Association of British Insurers where he led the industry through a programme of European legislation known as the Financial Services Action Plan — designed to create a single market for wholesale financial services.
In 2003, Simon set up a specialist public affairs consultancy of his own. Over 10 years he worked for a wide variety of companies including VISA, Microsoft, SAP, GSK, AstraZeneca, Abbott Laboratories, Optimum Nutrition, Danone, the ATM Industry Association, Bank Machine and Cardtronics Inc.
In 2003, Simon set up a specialist public affairs consultancy of his own. Over 10 years he worked for a wide variety of companies including VISA, Microsoft, SAP, GSK, AstraZeneca, Abbott Laboratories, Optimum Nutrition, Danone, the ATM Industry Association, Bank Machine and Cardtronics Inc.
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Katie Begg
Senior Counsel
Katie Begg is a policy and public affairs expert with 18 years' experience. For the past ten years she has specialised in healthcare policy. She led the policy, marketing and communications team at a national cancer charity until 2017, executing campaigns that delivered meaningful change. Since then, she has worked in a consulting capacity with NHS, charity, and corporate clients to offer strategic counsel and support.
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Prior to focusing on healthcare, Katie managed corporate public affairs programmes both in the UK and across Europe. She has particular expertise in the role of policy insight and public affairs in organisational risk management, and advising on how communications strategies can support wider organisational or corporate objectives.
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Read our insights if you’d like to hear more from our team.
Atticus Partners works with a network of freelancers and global partners who provide the flexible resources and technical expertise needed to provide bespoke results to our clients. Our freelancers enhance our capability to serve clients and deliver impactful solutions, utilising regional and local knowledge. Working together, we can provide additional capacity and meet any skills gap that our clients may require.
Through our global partnerships, we deliver results for our clients. Our integrated network enhances our capability to serve clients and deliver solutions utilising regional and local expertise.
We’ve cultivated an environment that harbours independence. Whether they are early birds who go to yoga and then smash their news updates before 8.30am, or they simply hate travelling on the tube in rush hour, we trust and respect our team’s skills and conscientiousness. As long as core responsibilities are covered, our team is free to work flexibly.
We’re proud to be a living wage employer. We believe that no one should have to choose between financial stability and doing a job they love, so we pay a wage that allows our team to save for a rainy day and guarantees a good quality of life.
Many members of the Atticus Partners team hold the Communications Management Standard (CMS). CMS demonstrates a commitment to achieving excellence and assures our clients that we are providing the most effective service possible.
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