PR’s Top 21

PR Week celebrated last year its coming of age with the 100 most influential figures of the industry during the past 21 years. Even though women outnumber men in the field, only 21 female practitioners were acknowledged and only one (Adele Biss) was on the top 10. Here is the list of the female PR super breed:

1- Adele Biss (founder and chief of public affairs of AS Biss & Co)
2- Lesley Brend (Founder and former chairman of the consumer PR agency The Red Consultancy)
3- Alison Canning (Edelman’s former president of international operations)
4- Jackie Cooper (founder of Jackie Cooper PR Agency)
5- Romola Christopherson (late Whitehall’s director of information at the Department of Health and associate of the Media Strategy firm)
6- Jackie Elliot (former PRCA chairman)
7- Lynne Franks (the fashion and lifestyle PR ‘guru’ immortalized as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous)
8- Jilly Forster (former The Body Shop’s communications director)
9- Margot James (co-founder of PR agency Shire Health; and Ogilvy Healthworld Europe regional president)
10- Angela Heylin (OBE) (former chairman of Charles Barker BSMG)
11- Lorraine Langham (MD of public sector consultancy Verve Communications)
12- Sandra MacLeod (Echo Research CEO and the first international board member of the IPR)
13- Dora McCabe (former head of PR for Cadbury)
14- Feona McEwan (WPP communications director)
15- Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Tesco group director of corporate affairs)
16- Sally Osman (BBC head of communications)
17- Jane Reed (CBE) (corporate affairs director at News International)
18- Maureen Smith (The Communication Group director for 20 years)
19- Sally Sykes (former press and PR chief of Manchester Airport)
20- Pamela Taylor (OBE) (Past President of the Institute of Public Relations and a founder Director and Chief Executive of Water UK)
21- Catherine Warne (MD of Red Door Communications and founder of the PRCA's healthcare group)