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
Aliona Hlivco
senior Consultant
Ben Coltham
senior consultant
Bethan Phillips
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Michael Dowsett
Senior Consultant
Stuart Pilcher
Associate Director
Senior Counsel
James Frith
Senior Counsel
James Frith is an experienced parliamentarian serving formerly as MP for Bury North. He is a former member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Education and was Private Parliamentary Secretary to the current Shadow Secretary of Defence, John Healey MP.
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James was an influential member of the Education Committee that reported in its inquiry on the value of Higher Education. He has strong national and regional government ties across the UK, while also serving as a consultant on diplomacy and international government affairs campaigns.
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Mary Jo Jacobi
Senior Counsel
Mary Jo is an internationally-renowned expert in reputation, brand and crisis management and a trusted advisor on the complex dynamics of international corporate, economic and government relationships.
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In addition to devising award-winning global brand strategies for the HSBC Group and Lehman Brothers, Mary Jo created the often-copied use of airport jetties for brand building and thought leadership. Mary Jo holds the distinction of being appointed to public sector office by two American Presidents, two British Prime Ministers and a reigning monarch. George H W Bush named her Assistant US Secretary of Commerce. She was Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and later a member of his Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations. Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May appointed her to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, prior to which she was one of Her Majesty’s Civil Service Commissioners. Early in her career she served on the staff of the US Senate Committee on Commerce.
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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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