Roberta Whitter - Financial PR

Having graduated from St Hilda’s College, Oxford in 2004, Roberta Whitter qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche, where she worked on statutory audits, due diligence and solicitors’ accounts rules compliance for a range of clients, including WPP, Allen and Overy, Serco and Thomas Pink.

She moved into PR when she joined leading corporate communications partnership Brunswick, where she combines her finance background with her media and communication skills working with a range of leading companies on financial calendar work, M&A, investor relations and media handling.

We spoke to Roberta about her career so far, and her involvement in the Brunswick Internship Programme that is coordinated by Unicorn Jobs.

By Unicorn Jobs

How did you first get into PR?

A chance meeting with a neighbour who works at Brunswick is what initially sparked my interest in a career in corporate communications. I was a chartered accountant at the time, working in audit at a big four firm, but was craving something more creative that would let me develop my communications and writing skills.

How has your career progressed?

I have learned an incredible amount in the last two years since moving into a communications career. Brunswick has a supportive and collegiate atmosphere that has allowed me to learn from others and quickly move into an advisory role with clients. Training as a chartered accountant is a fantastic springboard for a number of careers, but I have found it particularly useful at Brunswick as I can talk to both clients and journalists confidently about financial reporting issues.

Tell us a bit more about Brunswick.

Brunswick has been around since 1987 and is the leading international communications adviser. We are a private partnership with a growing team of more than 400 people, and we have 16 offices in 11 countries around the world. Brunswick is full of inspiring and talented people who have had experience in journalism, banking, accountancy, law, the arts, the military and, of course, PR. This makes for some fun and interesting meetings when we get our heads together!

You did a Classics degree – has that helped at all in your comms career?

A Classics degree involves lots of ancient Greek and Latin literature, history and philosophy. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t relevant to my job. Apart from developing a love of fifth century BC Greek vases, my degree equipped me with skills like writing clearly, formulating arguments, and responding to pressure and tight deadlines – key attributes for anyone working in PR.

Do you ever wish you had done a PR degree?

No. I don’t think not having a PR degree has held me back at all, and I am a firm believer that studying an academic subject you love at degree level is as good a way as any into a great career.

What does your current job involve?

I work on some really fun, high profile retained accounts where my colleagues and I get to support our clients both through the key moments of the financial calendar, and in crafting longer term communications strategies for them in between results, including profile raising and dealing with crises.

We also help clients build up a support network of journalists, principally through briefing programmes with senior management, so that our media contacts have a good understanding of a client’s business.

I have also been lucky enough to work on a couple of big corporate deals, which are hard work but enormous fun – setting out a compelling rationale for the merits of a potential transaction with all of a company’s stakeholders.

Give us an idea of a typical day at work?

There is no typical day at Brunswick, which is one of the things I like best about this industry. Sometimes you have to tear up your to do list at the beginning of the day once you realise that events in the media, or some sort of client crisis, has shifted all your priorities.

Having said that, most days would include conversations with clients and journalists on the phone, keeping up with media coverage, both in print and online, attending internal brainstorming meetings, crafting advice or messaging for a client, and maybe even a drink with a contact at the end of the day!

Do you think there is a lack of ethnic diversity in PR, and how should the industry tackle it?

Speaking from personal experience only, I think there is a lack of diversity in many high flying City organisations. It’s not just a lack of ethnic diversity, but also an issue of social mobility.

Instead of just hoping that things would change, Brunswick decided to take action and in conjunction with Taylor Bennett, Unicorn Jobs and the University of East London, created the Brunswick Internship Programme. It’s a ten week, full-time training course in public relations, coordinated and delivered by Unicorn Jobs and designed to equip participants with relevant skills to work in the PR and communications industry.

The aim of the scheme is to offer opportunities to students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, enriching the diversity of the PR and communications world. The pilot scheme in 2008 was an enormous success with the interns moving onto positions in arts PR, fashion PR and television, and the 2009 graduates have already secured roles in financial PR and the public sector.

You’ve been particularly involved in the Internship Programme on Brunswick’s behalf, how did that happen?

I bumped into Andrew Fenwick, our Group Finance Partner, on the way to a meeting and he told me about the discussions he had had about the scheme with Heather McGregor of Taylor Bennett and Unicorn Jobs.

As someone from an ethnic minority background myself, I was keen to get involved and started thinking about designing a programme for the time the interns would spend here at Brunswick. I’m so glad I got involved as the scheme has been an enormous success and I have made some very dear friends along the way. We can’t wait to welcome the next set of interns in June!

What advice would you have for anyone considering a career in PR?

Research your role – there is plenty of information out there and the better prepared you are for the interview the more confident you will feel. Seek out books on communications, read the business press religiously and think about which companies out there are doing a good (or bad!) job at communicating. This will give you plenty to talk about in an interview and also prepare you for starting work in a fast paced and dynamic world where you will be expected to contribute ideas as soon as possible.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Constantly learning and developing – things never stand still in communications and I like to be thrown in at the deep end. I can honestly say I have never had a day watching the clock – the time goes so quickly and I enjoy working under pressure. I also love being surrounded by intelligent, ambitious people who I can learn from and laugh with.

What’s the worst thing about your job?

I am pretty much surgically attached to my blackberry, but it’s self inflicted as I have to know what’s going on and can’t bear to be out of the loop.

What’s been the highlight of your career so far?

Pitching to a FTSE 100 chief executive and finance director for the first time was pretty nerve wracking, but it was a great feeling winning the pitch and continuing to build our relationship from there. Also nothing beats the excitement of a big deal announcement day!

Finally, tell us something interesting about yourself that we couldn’t find on the internet.

I used to be lead singer and songwriter in a mildly successful girl band in the late nineties – thankfully well before the days of YouTube so you won’t find any evidence on the internet!