Richard Emmott Email & Phone Number

Hatfield, England, United Kingdom

I'm helping Affinity Water increase its influence on future UK water policy - looking particularly at the huge challenge of the gap between water supply and demand - particularly in the South East of England. I lead a small professional team charged with bringing together the expertise and innovation already in Affinity and turning that into practical policy ideas.

Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

I was leading the external affairs team whilst a the SRA hired a permanent person to the role - which they did very successfully. I was fortunate enough to lead an excellent team covering all you’d expect - public affairs, external comms, internal comms, digital and social and publications. I dealt with two challenging issues on my watch: an investigation into alleged malpractice by some immigration lawyers and the SRA’s intervention into Axiom ince solicitors, a firm which collapsed with £64m missing from the client account.

Leeds, United Kingdom

Having joined Yorkshire Water as interim communications director to manage the im-pact of a health and safety prosecution, I also advised on policy positioning on financial legitimacy issues such as offshore structures and the potential impact of government and opposition policy and led on incident management through the 2018 drought. I was appointed to a permanent role to set up and run a new corporate affairs function, to include national political and government influencing, regional stakeholder relations and issues management. A new strategy was implemented, based on creating regional coalitions and partnerships in Yorkshire to secure national influence.I also led the water industry’s collective reputation management work dealing with Brexit, Covid response and waste water compliance issues.Highlights of the role included:• Delivered partnership with Yorkshire Leaders Board to back the company’s submission to the PR24 price review• Implemented new regional partnerships on flooding and resilience and carbon Represented YW in government reviews of economic regulation • Effective issues management throughout Brexit, Covid and the CMA regulatory appeal• Aligned investor government relations programme to the company’s activity.• Ensured that the sector remained united throughout major challenges and improved collective incident response.

York, United Kingdom

Richard provided senior level reputation advisory services through Bolton Bridge. He advised Siemens Rail Systems on positioning strategies for UK rolling stock tenders and also worked with the Department for Transport and Rail Delivery Group on a communications strategy to support smart ticketing. Other clients included a major private health provider in support of contract bids.

Doha

Qatar Rail delivered one of the world's most audacious transport infrastructure projects including a new metro system for Doha, a tram system linked to it and ultimately regional long distance services across the GCC.The communications challenge was to replace ad hoc activity with a clear strategy to take the project from the construction phase into operational delivery, generating excitement around the building programme and them implementing behaviour change campaigns to shift Qataris from their cars and on to the metro. A structured approach to stakeholder and community engagement was also necessary.Richard led a function of 12 staff, covering branding, marketing, public relations, social media and programme communications.

London, United Kingdom

The Office of Rail Regulation is the independent economic regulator for Network Rail and the safety regulator for the whole industry. I joined in January 2013 with a brief to rejuvenate the external affairs function and lead the communications strategy for ORR's five year review of Network Rail's proposed investment and spending. This has involvedResponsibility for leading the external affairs function including media relations, digital engagement, stakeholder and industry relations and internal commsSenior responsible officer for ORR transparency programmeGained board endorsement for new comms strategy within 6 weeks of appointmentI lead the communications delivery for the current periodic review of Network Rail, which independent evaluation has shown has delivered exceptional quality and quantity of media coverage, with very focussed message delivery.Introduced reputation dashboard for ORR enabling real time reporting of internal and external engagement metrics.Significantly strengthened the stakeholder engagement team and supported the introduction of a new devolved stakeholder management system.Sponsored development of new use of social media channels in communicating the intricacies of rail finance to a wider audienceIntroducing a new flexible approach to team resourcing based on an internal agency model.

Responsible for leading the reputation turnround of the EHRC, through a series of hostile select committee hearings and NAO reviews.Also responsible for the delivery of How Fair is Britain - the first Triennial Review of the EHRC, taking the project over when delivery was in considerable jeopardyLed the groundbreaking equality assessment of the Treasury and 2010 spending reviewDelivered the inquiry into disability related harassmentLed the production of the 2012 human rights reviewAchieved significant reduction in communications costsDelivered substantial reductions in operating costs through the introduction of new flexible working practices

Managed the communications team for the NHS IT agency and commenced the process of their closer integration into the Department of HealthRevised and updated issues management procedures

Led the strategic communications planning for a period of significant regulatory activity including: BA fuel surcharge price fixing fine and test case with clearing banks on default overdraft charges.In addition to the communications role, I also ran a review of governance and decision making and also led the performance management round

Responsible for leading communications through the financial restructuring of the business. This included a substantial rights issue and successive disposals.Key was securing support for the strategy adopted by the new management team, given the hostile media response to the failings of the previous regime.

Put in place a rationalised approach to issues and crisis management to deal with some of the lessons learnt from the handling of the Potters Bar rail crash

Led the reputation turnround for YW, taking the business from being the most reviled in its sector to a position of being the best regarded.I used highly innovative comms techniques to complement the operational turnround, including a rebrand and highly successful and award winning behaviour change campaign Cool Schools, based on dealing with dehydration in primary schools.Also managed the reputation of the business through major incidents such as flooding, interruptions to service and prosecutions.

Led on issues management for five teaching hospitals in Manchester. I dealt successfully with incidents such as the hospital response to the 1996 Manchester bomb, the birth of conjoined twins and several potential clinical negligence issues.Also raised the hospitals' profile as a centre of excellence in a variety of fields including cardiac services, renal medicine and surgery and tertiary women and childrens' services