Richard O'Brien Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Strategic communications and public affairs lead for Sortition Foundation, the leading enabler and campaigner for citizens’ assemblies and democratic reform in the UK and internationally, working with local, regional and national governments and organisations.Created and drove new multi-stakeholder strategy to establish cross party relationships and support including Sortition Foundation’s first ever advisory board.Delivered Sortition Foundation’s first coverage in top tier UK media.Created the 858 Project and messaging to advocate for House of Lords reform on a citizens’ assembly model in the election year of 2024. The 858 Project is an umbrella campaign for other interested groups, led by Sortition Foundation and drawing on the UK’s constitutional history to frame this major change - 2024 being 858 years since Henry II first codified juries into English law, the first time ordinary people in Britain had a say in their laws and decision making.

London Area, United Kingdom

London

Hayes, Middlesex, England

Board of Trustees of the EMI Archive Trust, an independent charity that preserves and promotes the unrivalled history of EMI and its artists which reaches back to 1897. My work as a Trustee includes relationship building with other blue chip UK cultural institutions such as the British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, BBC, National Archive and Wellcome Trust, developing new media platforms for the Trust’s unique assets and stories including podcasts, various TV and film projects including on war hero and scientific genius Alan Blumlein, the inventor of stereo.

London, United Kingdom

Led communications collaborating with governments, corporations, foundations worldwide to improve lives and communities across sustainability, health, intl development, education, economics, social cohesion & more.- Built strong relationships with news, political & economic media/opinion formers. Regular interviews and analysis for BIT execs on most influential outlets incl BBC TV (UK/global), radio (Today, PM, etc), UK broadsheets (incl. Times, Guardian, FT), international media (NY Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Nature, Globe & Mail (Canada), Sydney Morning Herald) and more.- Achievements: Generated media coverage & events reaching a global audience of over 2 billion, 95% rated positive or neutral.- Crisis management: Successfully countered misinformation & conspiracy theories during COVID-19.Stakeholder relations: Engaged, advised, built trust and influenced global leadership, board and chair within BIT, senior execs in partner organisations, civil servants, special advisors and ministerial offices across UK gov depts & agencies, incl No.10, HM Treasury, Dept for Health, Government Equalities Office, Public Health England. - Content:Video: Produced explainers (http://bit.ly/3S0pgGp), vox pops (https://bit.ly/48vMoDN), documentary (https://bit.ly/41YTxdi).Podcasts: Created ‘Inside The Nudge Unit’ https://bit.ly/3U4nCWT. Episodes incl w/Nobel laureate Richard Thaler, government ministers & deep dives into BIT’s work. Downloads av 5k with high engagement - most people listened to whole episodes.Augmented reality: Developed AR to bring static content (eg reports) to life.- Line management: Comms officers, freelancers, design studio, agencies.- Budgets: £500k+ budget, additional influence and support for related costs - eg web security.- Efficiency: Built consensus to replace expensive intranet with zero cost option saving 10s of thousands.- Branding: Secured full ownership of highly valuable ‘Nudge Unit’ brand for the 1st time in complex legal process.

London, United Kingdom

Bespoke senior international role leading commercial innovation and new partnerships across 60+ countries for UMG, the world’s number one music company.- Led on delivery of multiple areas of commercial strategy across countries and with colleagues of every level of seniority including leading a project personally directed by the global CEO to redefine music ownership in a streaming environment which he approved for immediate roll out.- Board member: Led communications and marketing efforts for a digital startup, expanding reach to the UK, Germany, France, Norway, and Denmark, powering growth to over 100,000 paying subscribers with ARPU over €20.- Innovation: Pioneered new content models, including books, comedy, and short-form video. Personally negotiated groundbreaking book deal with CEOs from big three book publishers and established productive first of its kind relationship with major comedy TV producer Banijay.

London, United Kingdom

Senior London-based media relations and communications executive. Managed international and local media in all countries worldwide across all media and digital platforms. Key achievements included:- Planning and coordinating with UK government depts & agencies for UMG’s involvement in the cultural industries contributions to Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to UK in 2015,- Developing and delivering strategic communications objectives for UMG initiatives, acquisitions and projects such as expansion into emerging markets including China, India and Africa and launching a new independent artist division, Caroline International, to media and industry.- Running regular crisis management workshops for UK and international teams.- Driving the media strategy to reposition the perception of classical music including through targeted media, speeches, a new online platform and the innovative Bristol Proms concerts for which I achieved top-tier UK national, regional and local media coverage (BBC, The Times, Guardian).- Coordinating media at and for industry events and awards, including BRITs and Grammys.- Leadership: Line managed communications managers and other team members as well as consultants and advisors around the world. Commissioned and ensured timely and high quality creative output, events, etc from external agencies and partners.- Stakeholder management: Advised, coached and made recommendations to senior management on media issues, policies, internal communication- Industry and government: Represented UMG on trade bodies for industry and public affairs issues and campaigns.

London, United Kingdom

Spinnup is UMG’s startup global platform for new artists. Led all comms, PR and marketing and was hands-on with all aspects of strategy, growth, development and team-building. Over 100,000 artists have joined Spinnup to date and over 40 have been signed by UMG labels.

Senior leader in global comms for FTSE 100 company EMI.- Modernised EMI’s corporate branding and logo with iconic UK designer Peter Saville, launching across 50 international markets. Managed reputation such that EMI named UK’s 28th most reputable company by Reputation Institute.- Strategy: Member of the UK board as communications lead, regular one-to-one meetings with the CEO to plan media strategy, reputation building, internal communication, events.- Innovation: Successfully launching industry-leading innovation projects including a ground-breaking partnership with Apple (DRM-free music) and the OpenEMI platform for software developers.- Corporate & Social Responsibility: Oversaw and ran communications for EMI’s award winning CSR programme (EMI was a member of FTSE4Good and Dow Jones Sustainability Group indexes. Led comms and PR for EMI Music Sound Foundation, one of the biggest supporters of music education in the UK.- Launched & grew social media, updated website at saving of 99%.- Change management: Member of change management committees as communication lead during radical restructurings and acquisitions by Terra Firma and later Universal Music Group.- Reports and publications: End-to-end management of EMI’s financial reports and AGM communications materials. Unusually among regulatory publications, one of EMI’s annual reports that I managed was shortlisted in the prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencil design awards.- Created photo of Damon Albarn-Noel Gallagher reunion still used by media today (https://bit.ly/3UaPmJk).

Postgraduate Diploma, Journalism

Bachelors, Economics