By Powerscourt on 01/02/2022

Powerscourt hires four to TMT practice amid ‘record’ growth

Powerscourt has made four senior appointments in its tech, media and telecoms (TMT) team following recent client wins in the division.

Robin O’Kelly, former group comms and corporate responsibility director at vehicle glass repair and replacement group Belron, has joined Powerscourt as a director. His previous roles included group director of comms at Interserve, director of corporate comms at EE, and comms director at T-Mobile. He worked consultancy-side at Burson-Marsteller and Park Street Partners.

Ilyas Kanapyanov has joined Powerscourt as a consultant from IPG agency Current Global, where he advised Microsoft, among other clients. Another consultant hire is Ollie Simmonds, previously of Headland, where he covered both financial and corporate communications for clients from a number of sectors including TMT.

Io Kidson, who previously worked for European price-comparison service Kelkoo Group, has also started working at Powerscourt, as an analyst.

Powerscourt said TMT client wins in 2021, including Darktrace and Dawn Capital, contributed to a second year of record growth at the business. Revenue grew 21 per cent to £14m at the company, which employs about 60 staff.

Rory Godson, Powerscourt founder and chief executive, said: “TMT is an increasingly important sector to the future of the UK economy and has an exceptional set of communications challenges. Given the rapid growth of our own work in this area, I’m delighted to welcome Robin, Ollie, Io and Ilyas to Powerscourt. Together they will help us continue to provide market-leading advice and execution to our expanding roster of clients.”

Other recent hires at Powerscourt include Leighton Barnish, who joined in December as head of sustainability.

Among its other appointments in 2021 were two directors to head its healthcare and special situations practices: Sarah MacLeod and Peter Barrett. It also created a public affairs division and promoted former political journalist Mark Leftly to run the practice.

The agency was founded in 2004 by Godson, a former business editor of The Sunday Times and director of corporate affairs EMEA at Goldman Sachs.

https://www.prweek.com/article/1738769/powerscourt-hires-four-tmt-practice-amid-record-growth