Jim Hancock
 
One of the region’s best known and respected political and media correspondents.

Hancock has been reporting on the political scene in the region for over 30 years including spells as political editor of both Granada and BBC North West. He has interviewed every Prime Minister from Harold Wilson to Gordon Brown.

He is a regular contributor to radio and TV in addition to columns for national and regional media including The Daily Post and EN magazine.

He is also increasingly well-known as a host of conferences and events (including the NWDA and CBI) and is a member of the regional committee of the Royal Television Society.
 

Martin Brooks
 
Former senior BBC staffer and the man responsible for managing and bringing the BBC’s mediacity project to a successful conclusion. He stepped down from the Beeb last year to establish his own consultancy business, MKB Media.

Brooks started his career as a print journalist before moving to Piccadilly Radio from where he transferred media again when he joined BBC TV in Leeds. In 1997 he was given responsibility for all of the BBC’s regional TV and radio output in Yorkshire before being promoted to take on the equivalent post in the North West.
 
From the end of 2004, together with Mark Thomas and BBC Manchester heads of departments, Brooks was also involved in moves to help develop the creative infrastructure across the north in preparation for the relocation of five BBC departments to Salford Quays.

Lindsay MacFarlaine

Head of corporate communications at Lancashire County Council – the largest Labour authority in the country.

After graduating in Communications from Leeds University, MacFarlaine worked in media production – radio and film and in public and private sector communications.
 
Her career has also included communication projects in Belgium, Greece, France and Germany and becoming the first civilian to lead on communications for South Yorkshire Police.

Before moving to Lancashire, she managed community development and internal communications at Northamptonshire County Council.

Dave Carter
 
Head of Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) and recognised as a key figure in the region’s development as a leading European centre for digital innovation.

Carter has been with the city council for a number of years and was latterly in charge of economic development before moving across to help establish and then run the dedicated digital agency.

He has been voted the region’s most influential ‘digital’ person at the Big Chip Awards, at least partially no doubt in recognition of his consistent promotion of ambitious and innovative digital initiatives.

Patrick O’Neill

Stepped down this spring as editor of Cheshire Life after 18 years in the position and has now taken up a number of consultancy and writing roles.

O’Neill trained as a priest in Durham but saw the light and discovered an alternative road in journalism.

He began his career in Liverpool before moving to Manchester where he joined the Daily Mail.

When he left Cheshire Life, the title had grown into the UK’s largest county magazine in the UK – in terms of pagination – and enjoyed an ABC circulation of almost 18,000 with an estimated readership in excess of 115,000 per edition.

O’Neill picked up a special commendation at the How-Do Awards in April in the Magazine category for his contribution to regional publishing.

Paul Carroll

Carroll sold his PR consultancy, Communique, to Burson Marsteller in May 2001 and departed its Canal Street front doors in 2004. His current vehicle is Zuma.

He describes Zuma as a “specialist consultancy advising both PR consultancies and clients with PR accounts” but most recently he has been in the news as a consultant to Peel where he has helped the company secure Paul Newman and colleagues as part of a broader consultancy assignment at mediacity.

He established Communique in 1986 and by 2001 the agency had a turnover of £3.5m. During his tenure at Communique, the agency won over 100 national and regional awards and commendations and was voted Consultancy of the Year five times and PR Consultancy of the Decade.   

Kevin Meagher

Meagher is group head of communications at Crewe-based mobile phone distributor, 20:20 Mobile which has turnover approaching £1bn. His previous roles included head of communications at Advantage West Midlands and head of public affairs for the Sector Skills Development Agency.

A son of the North West, Meagher was also for nearly five years political trouble-shooter at United Utilities and before was the Labour Party’s press officer in the region up to and through the successful 2001 general election. He started off working in “political PR” as policy and press officer as Hyndburn council in East Lancashire.

He is co-organiser of the North West Public Affairs Network of similar ‘out-of-London’ lobbying practitioners.

Stephen Chapman

Chapman began his career as a freelance reporter working on and off screen for Granada TV, ITN, Tyne Tees Television News, London News Network, Big AM (Wireless Group) and Trax FM.

In 2002 he joined ITV Granada as a reporter and subsequently producer in the news operation. While at GTV in 2006 he led a team to the World Cup in Germany from where he produced all the news and sports output for all ITV Regions. In 2005 he flew with the Liverpool team to Istanbul as a producer for GTV’s coverage of the Champion’s League victory for LFC.

Chapman was part of the Granada Reports team, which won numerous awards, including a BAFTA, an RTS National Award and a Broadcast Award.

In May this year he joined How-Do as deputy editor to Alan Johnstone.

 

About our partners

 

turner parkinson

Last year turner parkinson joined How-Do as a sponsor of the Media 100 and we are delighted that it has renewed its association with the initiative for a second successive year.

turner parkinson LLP is a leading law firm with a reputation for friendly, innovative and partner led advice.  

The firm has a dedicated creative industries team, advising a wide range of innovators, artists, software houses, publishers and marketing agencies throughout the North West and beyond.
 
The firm has been voted as ‘One of the region’s coolest solicitors' by a lifestyle magazine, primarily because of its creative industries work.  

www.tp.co.uk

AFM

Alliance Fund Managers is a fund management company with £141m under its management.  Currently it has four live investing funds, all belonging to the Merseyside Special Investment Group of Funds, which provide loans and equity packages from £3k to £4m to help businesses start and expand.

In addition to finance AFM also provides a range of support packages to help businesses develop and grow and maximise their chance of success.  AFM has funded numerous businesses in the digital and creative sectors including very early stage technology companies. These investments have included over £17m in around 120 companies including New Mind, Rippleffect, Uniform, Cybertill, Paver Smith and Mando Group

A variety of support initiatives have also been developed, in particular building special sector-focused networks that are aimed at bringing together people working in creative and digital businesses to enable them to make new contacts, share ideas and experiences, and listen to speakers on a variety of useful topics.

AFM

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