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Portland Communications is a political consultancy and public relations agency set up in 2001 by Tim Allan,[1] a former adviser to Tony Blair[2] and director of communications at BSkyB. Portland provides communications and public affairs advice to brands and high-profile individuals.
| Industry | Communications |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Tim Allan |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | Victoria Dean |
| Services | Communications |
Number of employees | 490 (2022) |
| Website | portland-communications |
Portland was founded by Tim Allan in 2001. The Guardian reported that the consultancy launched on the back of a contract from then BSkyB chief executive Tony Ball, who had previously been Allan's boss.
In April 2012, Allan was reported to have sold a majority stake in Portland to media marketing company Omnicom, for an estimated £20 million.[3] The sale is said to have completed in 2019.[4]
In November 2019, parent company Omnicom merged Portland with another of its subsidiaries, the public affairs firm GPlus.[5] The merger was completed in June 2020, with the GPlus brand retired. As of June 2020, the company had eight offices: in London, Washington D.C., Doha, Nairobi, Singapore, Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
Current and previous clients include the British Bankers' Association,[6] Tullow Oil,[7] BTA Bank, AkzoNobel and AB InBev on behalf of its Stella Artois brand.[8]
Portland's chief executive officer is Victoria Dean, also known as Vikki Dean, who took over in late 2022.[9] Dean is a former British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, and was also global head of public policy at Google.[10] In March 2024, PR Week reported she would be stepping down from her chief executive role at Portland.[11]
The company's first chief executive was founder Tim Allan. He stepped down in November 2019 when Portland's parent company Omnicom merged the company with another public affairs firm, GPlus. Allan was succeeded as chief executive by Mark Flanagan in January 2020, who held the role until 2022.[12][5]
As of March 2024, Portland senior advisers include former Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell, former French diplomat Gérard Araud, former senior UEFA executive William Gaillard, and former Portland chief executive Mark Flanagan.[13]
Appointment of James O'Shaughnessy
In January 2012, Portland Communications hired James O'Shaughnessy, Prime Minister David Cameron's former director of policy, as Chief Policy Advisor. The Independent reported that O'Shaughnessy failed to inform the Whitehall committee which vets jobs for officials leaving Government, which was described by Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee of Standards in Public Life, as a "serious error of judgement".[14] O'Shaughnessy was elevated to the peerage in 2015.[15]
Wikipedia editing
In January 2012, MP Tom Watson discovered that Portland Communications had tried to remove references to a client's brand of lager, Stella Artois, from the wife-beater disambiguation page in Wikipedia.[8][16] The beer had become known in the UK as the "wife-beater", in part because of its high alcohol content, and perceived connection with binge drinking and aggression.[8][17]
Qatar
In 2014 it was revealed that Portland had been hired for $150,000 by Qatar "for a communications/political push targeted at Congress and federal agencies to improve ties with the US".[18]
The firm admitted to on-line attacks of critics of their client, the government of Qatar, who hosted the 2022 World Cup.[19]
Labour Party conspiracy accusations
In 2016, left-wing political website The Canary alleged that Portland staff were behind the orchestration of a "coup" against the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, after a wave of mass resignations from his front bench.[20] Len McCluskey of British and Irish trade union Unite told Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning programme that "I'm amazed that some of the MPs have fallen into a trap." Referring to Portland Communications as a "sinister force", McCluskey said, "This is a PR company with strong links to Tony Blair and right-wing Labour MPs who've been involved in this orchestrated coup, and the coup has failed". Portland Communications denied any allegations as "a ridiculous conspiracy theory and completely untrue".[21]
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