Richard Gaunt :
Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Research

Richard began his PR career in the 1970s. During a long and varied career he has done most things – run busy press offices, internal communications, major events, managed strategic departments in major organisations, founded PR and research companies – increasingly on an international scale.

His experience includes takeovers, strikes, crises, restructuring, financial, issues management, political lobbying, product PR, mentoring and speechwriting – in fact just about everything in the communications spectrum. He is also the founder and CEO of Benchpoint, our specialist on line research resource for measurement, evaluation and opinion research.

My Q&As

What is your role at Stratia?

Helping my colleagues, as a senior consultant, to get to the heart of the matter and produce communications programmes that make strategic sense and add value to the client’s business.

What qualifications have you attained?

When I left school with three A levels, not that many people went to University. I was lucky enough to work alongside senior directors of major companies since I was 21, and this was an education in itself. I am a full member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and have won a few awards over the years.

How long have you been at Stratia?

I’m a newbie, and looking forward to working with some exciting and clever colleagues.

What is your best quality?

Loyalty, and absolute discretion.

What is your worst habit?

Never regretting the time I do not spend in the office

My interests

General

Sailing, Skiing, theatre and film

Music

Rock and roll, Pink Floyd, and the great classics (11,800 tracks on the iPod).

Films

Ealing comedies, French cinema.

Heroes

Fred Dibnah, Winston Churchill, Jack Aubrey.

My links

• benchpoint.com
• intelligentmeasurement.wordpress.com/
• funstuff.htm