Leadership Team
THE BOARD
James Kelliher
Chief Executive Officer
James became chief executive officer of Whiteoaks in 2013, following a management buyout of the business. With overall responsibility for the management of Whiteoaks, he is the majority shareholder in the business and provides high level strategic and consultative guidance to major clients and their senior internal stakeholders.
James has been providing communications consultancy to a wide range of clients across the IT, telecoms, B2B and professional services sectors for more than 20 years. His client experience includes AMD, Autodesk, Autonomy, British Telecom, Dell, Ericsson Mobile Communications, Honeywell, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Siemens, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Vodafone and Xerox. He has spearheaded the consultancy’s unique ‘Totally Transparent’ and ‘360PR’ market propositions, leading to outstanding client retention and prospect conversion rates. This has helped Whiteoaks become one of the UK’s leading B2B and technology PR consultancies and also one of the fastest growing.
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Suzanne Griffiths
Managing Director
Since the management buyout of the business in 2013, Suzanne has taken on the role of managing director with day-to-day responsibility for the successful management of Whiteoaks. She is also a shareholder in the business. Having been with the company for sixteen years, she is one of Whiteoaks’ top strategy consultants, experienced in providing expert advice and guidance to clients across global IT, telecoms and technology sectors. She is also responsible for actively driving the HR, resourcing, marketing, office and operations function within the business.
With a BA Hons in International Marketing Management, Suzanne has offered communications and marketing consultancy to leading technology players around the world, including Autodesk, DTS, OKI, SAS, Technicolor, The Vitec Group, Vodafone and Xero.
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Hayley Goff
Chief Operating Officer
Hayley joined Whiteoaks in 2004 as a project manager. Since then she has held several senior posts within the company, before becoming a board director in 2013 and she now holds the position of Chief Operating Officer.
Hayley leads the day-to-day operation of the business with primary focus on client services. She has extensive experience in creating and managing international campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands.
Her role involves providing strategic and creative counsel across the client portfolio by regularly reviewing and advising clients on their PR and marketing strategies, and ensuring campaigns align with wider business/marketing objectives to deliver measurable ROI.
Specific client experience includes Autodesk, Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation, Clarivate Analytics, Ecrebo, OKI, SAS and Pulsant.
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John Broy
Chief Client Officer
As Chief Client Officer, John has the ability to lead his teams so that they can deliver strong results for clients from day one onwards, leveraging both traditional and emerging PR and marketing methods. This approach ensures that John quickly wins the respect and trust of clients.
Having joined Whiteoaks in 2011, John has a reputation for providing high quality, business-focused advice and consultancy to clients. As a member of the board since November 2018, he is responsible for the high-level strategic and creative consultancy across the communications mix on clients’ communications campaigns. John oversees his clients’ ongoing account development, financial planning and reporting as well as new business.
With his team’s support, John is able to create and lead compelling campaigns which meet and exceed clients’ objectives, ensuring they always deliver to deadlines. John has over 15 years’ experience in journalism and public relations, including three years’ experience as editor of Retail Systems.
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Andrew Marsden
Non-Executive Director
With 30 years of board experience, Andrew has held P&L responsibility across a wide range of manufacturing and service businesses. His experience covers private industry, the third sector, trade and government bodies.
He has served on the Governmental Advisory Committee on Advertising, is a former director of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice. Andrew is a former Chairman of the Institute of Promotional Marketing, the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, is a Past President of The Marketing Society and was Chairman of The Advertising Standards Authority Code Review. In 2011 he was the Independent Reviewer in the Armed Forces Communications Capability Review.
He is a past Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors, is a member of the Livery Committee of the City of London and Chairman of the 14 strong Financial Services Group of Livery Companies and is Chairman of The Debating Group.
Andrew holds a degree in business from Bradford, an Honorary Doctorate from Anglia Ruskin and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Institute of Promotional Marketing, the Marketing Society and the Royal Society of Arts. He has been a Trustee of several national charities.
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THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
Practice Leads
Hannah Buckley
Head of Content
With almost a decade of experience in marketing and communications, Hannah joined Whiteoaks in 2018 as a content creator. In July 2020 Hannah was promoted to Head of Content where she is responsible for leading the development and execution of Whiteoaks’ content strategy, managing and developing the wider content team, and ensuring the delivery of compelling written assets that will drive client satisfaction and exceed campaign targets.
Hannah started her career at Xbox before moving into SEO where she got her first taste of agency life, acting as an SEO and content manager for clients across a range of industries. Adept in writing all types of content for both PR and marketing, Hannah has experience in both the B2B and B2C industries.
She holds a BA (Hons) in French and English from the University of Reading.
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Ross Walker
Head of Social & Digital
Ross joined Whiteoaks in January 2021 as Head of Social & Digital Media.
Ross holds a Master’s degree in Marketing Management, having studied at Southampton Solent from 2006-2010. He started his career in email marketing, moving to PPC then onto social media. He has worked across a variety of industries, covering B2C and B2B brands including John Lewis, Nike, Samsung and Deloitte.
Ross’ three favourite social platforms are LinkedIn, Instagram and Clubhouse.
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Mark Wilson
Creative Director
Mark joined Whiteoaks in January 2020 as the agency’s first Creative Director. Mark holds a Master’s degree in Creative Advertising and has experience working for both large and boutique agencies. As an award-winning Creative Director for OgilvyOne, he has worked on brands including BA, British Gas and Drinkaware. He has also worked on campaigns for well-known B2B brands including Oracle, Ciena, CenturyLink.
Mark is passionate about strong, simple ideas that can change behaviour.
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Account Leads
Charlotte Causley
Associate Director
Charlotte joined Whiteoaks in October 2017 after spending four years in the automotive industry looking after both B2C and B2B PR campaigns for the likes of Volvo and Peugeot, regularly securing widespread coverage in local, trade and national press. Having previously also worked in-house and within internal comms teams, Charlotte is able to use her extensive experience to understand the needs of our clients and generate tangible campaigns that will deliver results to support their wider business needs, through Whiteoaks’ unique 360 Approach.
Within her time at Whiteoaks, Charlotte has progressed to Associate Director and now is responsible for clients which specialise in the broadcast, fintech and retail tech spaces.
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Chris Patmore
Senior Account Director
Chris joined Whiteoaks in July 2020 and brings with him more than 20 years’ experience in PR and communications. Having begun his career in-house, in the early days of the internet’s evolution, he went on to hold senior positions agency-side, working with a wide range of technology clients from ambitious start-ups to established multinational corporations.
During his career, he has run global communications programmes across the fintech, enterprise IT, retail and other technology sectors. This has included putting clients at the heart of topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, risk and regulation, data management, payments, customer loyalty, SME finance and more – helping them to not only participate in but also shape the debate. Chris is also the agency’s Head of Media, working closely with its media specialists to deliver results.
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Sophie Sadler
Account Director
Sophie has a broad range of experience in B2C and B2B PR, both agency and in-house, having worked with variety of brands, from household names such a retail-heavyweight John Lewis through to respected global technology vendors. She joined Whiteoaks in October 2019 as an account manager and quickly progressed, building strong client relationships and using her media expertise to deliver outstanding results. Sophie holds a First Class Degree in Public Relations from Leeds Beckett.
As Account Director, she continues to nurture those client relationships and leads a team that specialises in the broadcast, fintech, and medtech sectors.
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Alex Sweeney
Account Director
Alex joined Whiteoaks in June 2016 as a Junior Account Executive and secured a number of promotions before joining the Management Team after just four years. With a first-class degree in Sports Journalism from the University of Sunderland and a host of freelance experience working for regional newspapers, Alex used his in-depth understanding of what makes journalists tick and what makes a good news story to build excellent relationships with the media and secure top tier, targeted coverage for a range of B2B clients.
Throughout his tenure at Whiteoaks, Alex has become adept at steering and managing effective PR and integrated campaigns, by driving coverage in the national and trade media that supports the wider needs of the client. He understands what is required at every level to deliver a successful campaign, developing strong and trusted client relationships in the process.
As an Account Director, Alex is responsible for clients that specialise in the fintech, oil and gas, manufacturing and IT sectors.
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Ella Thompson
Account Director
Ella joined Whiteoaks in 2018 as a senior account manager. She holds a PR degree from Bournemouth University and began her career in PR and marketing in 2009 with an internship at HP. She has since established herself as a PR professional through a series of agency and in-house roles in the B2B tech space.
As Account Director she leads a team of specialists that work across the retail, cyber security and IT landscape.
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Business Support Heads
Bekki Bushnell
Head of Business Development
Bekki joined Whiteoaks in 2016 as a junior account executive and quickly progressed through the ranks to senior account manager before stepping into her Head of Business Development role. During her tenure in an account team, she established excellent relationships with clients and the media, and collaborated on and led viral campaigns for both business and consumer audiences.
Bekki holds a BSc Psychology degree and discovered the world of PR following an internship for Ogilvy Bangalore, where her extrovert nature and focus on creativity were put to great use.
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Adam George
Head of Finance
Adam started with Whiteoaks in January 2019 following 12 years spent working in Finance within the recruitment industry, most recently in the role of CFO. Adam is a member of the ACCA, having qualified in July 2018 and has a background in financial management, management accounting and payroll – amongst other disciplines.
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Susan Richter
Marketing Comms Manager
Susan was previously head of content for Whiteoaks before moving to her current role. As a seasoned copywriter and marketing communications specialist, she understands the intricacies of the B2B tech landscape and is adept at creating and executing content marketing campaigns that engage the right audiences. Now responsible for Whiteoaks’ external and customer marketing activities, Susan joined the business in 2013 and holds a BA (Hons) Communications degree from the University of South Africa.
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Tara Williams
HR Manager
Tara became Whiteoaks’ first HR Manager in April 2017. She is committed to helping Whiteoaks become recognised as an employer of choice in the technology PR industry and become an organisation that inspires all people to reach their full potential by delivering HR programmes and strategies to support the business goals. Tara has over 18 years’ experience in HR working across a variety of industries.
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