Michael Mcmanus Email & Phone Number

Having spent two-and-a-half years as chief executive of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (previously the Press Complaints Commission), taking up the reins during a fraught, final chapter in the life of an organisation with a national profile, I am very proud indeed of all I did to keep the vitally important flame of independent and non-statutory press self-regulation alive. At the time of writing (June 2024) I am coming to the end of the No.1 UK tour of my sixth play, "Party Games" - the previous five having all been performed professionally - which was commissioned and then produced by the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, a major producing house. I have a piece of musical theatre in pre-production too and there are plans for a national tour in 2025 (marking The Lady's centenary) of a radically revised and fully staged version of "Maggie & Ted", my play about Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher, which gave me my West End debut in 2021. Since 2014 I have also acted as rapporteur on a number of major reports, done some speech-writing for public figures, provided strategic advice to national and international clients - and established a new Policy Unit at the international, commercial law firm DAC Beachcroft LLP, for whom I continue to work, three days per week.I am a "super assessor" (aka judge) for the Off West End Awards (the "Offies") and I am very interested (and involved) in music too: I write features for "Gramophone" magazine, both in the magazine itself and as a blogger on the website. The PCC-IPSO role (in common with almost all my previous work) did, of course, bring me into close contact with the world of top-level politics, but my interests and enthusiasms extend far beyond the confines of Westminster. I am a West Ham season ticket holder and was an enthusiastic Sunday league footballer before niggling injuries did for me. I have written several books (biographies and books about politics) and, for BBC Worldwide, have also made several short films. I was recently re-elected as a trustee of the Concert Artistes' Association, a small club and charity for performers in need, based in Covent Garden; and I am a trustee of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation.

Listed skills include Strategic Communications, Stakeholder Engagement, Media Relations, Corporate Communications, and 12 others.