Consultant of the Year: Natasha Graham

Natasha joined Bellenden at the end of 2012 as an Account Manager and within two years was promoted to Associate Director. Over the last year she has stepped into a senior role at the forefront of the agency’s development – leading in the development of the company’s forthcoming business development and marketing strategies, creating a corporate and integrated communications function, delivering excellent results for her ever growing portfolio of clients, and supporting other consultants to grow and flourish.

She now leads a primary team of seven consultants, delivering record growth: as of October 2015 she had already met over 85% of her very challenging target for 2015/16, with over 60% from entirely new clients.

She has delivered this growth by identifying new sectors and services for the business, and working tirelessly to establish profile and credibility. Over the last year she has built an impressive education and skills practice, with new clients including University Alliance, the University of Salford, Dulux and the Mixed Economy Group (in addition to existing clients including AQA and ASCL). She has also taken the agency into an entirely new sector over the last six months – justice – tackling complex and contentious issues such as clinical negligence and insurance fraud.

Team and consultant development

Natasha has taken the time to really get to know the ambitions and motivations of each member of her team. She has supported them to identify both short and long-term objectives, and carve out opportunities to work towards them at a fast pace – whether this is identifying new clients, supporting their new business initiatives, or ensuring they work with a variety of junior and senior people. Through doing this she has created a motivated and energetic atmosphere that people thrive in, ultimately supporting the growth of in-house talent and staff retention.

Alongside her own team, Natasha also supports consultants across the company – mentoring four colleagues, delivering training sessions, and ensuring she is accessible to others. This has helped the company as a whole to share best practice and become ever more effective.

Jack McKenna, Account Executive, Bellenden, said: “It is obvious that Natasha takes a great deal of pride in watching her team develop as consultants during the course of all the projects that we work on together. I really enjoy working with her as she is quick to offer advice and counsel when needed but trusts me to make the right decisions. She is a supportive manager who always takes the time to map out development goals and targets to make sure that I get the most out of my time at work and feel valued as a junior employee.”

Client delivery

Natasha has taken on some of Bellenden’s most challenging briefs – for small emerging organisations through to big, established brands – and delivered results not only for organisations, but also sectors and consumers, through political and media channels. Notable work in 2014/15 includes:

• National Accident Helpline (NAH) – as part of NAH’s efforts to challenge the justice sector to drive up standards, she supported the organisation to develop the Ethical Marketing Charter on nuisance and cold marketing, and opt-ins/outs. Since its launch in July 2015, 50+ law firms have signed up, committing to firmer self-regulation for the good of consumers. The Charter has received backing from across regulators, political parties and the press. 
• Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) – Natasha’s initial work in late 2014 focused on understanding where ASCL’s value really lay for members and wider stakeholders, and how ASCL could add maximum value in an increasingly complex education sector. Natasha also helped to make ASCL’s ‘Blueprint for a School-Led System’ more accessible – resulting in much of its language and policies being adopted into the policy mix, and attention raised on the need for a fairer funding formula (with commitments secured from all parties pre-election).
• Akzo Nobel/Dulux – Since January, Natasha has helped Dulux to begin to establish itself as a credible and trusted organisation in the education sector. She has done so through raising awareness of the learning environment and the impact even small changes can have on teachers and students, and building an evidence base and coalition to support.

Leora Cruddas, Director of Policy, ASCL, said: “Natasha is a natural leader. She is authoritative, commanding and extremely knowledgeable. Her authority comes from her wide-ranging experience and impressive knowledge of politics. She has supported us to find better ways of doing our business and be far more sophisticated. She has identified opportunities and helped us define strategic approaches to delivering them, from developing our political advocacy during the pre-election period to defining our strategic engagement in the post-election period.”

Andrew Williams, Account Manager, Bellenden, said: “Natasha’s ability to get to the heart of complex and occasionally thorny issues – a result of her highly-developed strategic thinking – sets her apart from her contemporaries. She understands that the needs of each client are different, eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach in favour of carefully considered and crafted proposals. She has challenged the agency to think beyond the confines of pure public affairs, demonstrating an understanding of the growing importance of integrated communications and significantly improving Bellenden’s overall offer in the process.”

Other client highlights include:

• Helping Electrical Safety First to secure a commitment from the Welsh Government to 
introduce five-yearly electrical safety checks.
• Working with the Cystic Fibrosis Trust to help secure the future of the New Medicines 
Fund in Scotland.
• Helping Parkinson’s UK to create a new shared vision and mission statement.
• Helping Aldwyck Housing Group’s leadership team to fully grasp the Conservative agenda for housing and how best to support their services users and communities as a result. 

Beyond work

Alongside her professional work, Natasha has a strong personal commitment to education – serving as an Access Project history tutor and as a Board and Committee Member of Tower Hamlets College (which is currently strengthening links with other colleges in the East of London). 
She also continues to support initiatives that she has been involved with since the start of her career, including guidance and activism for the Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety in Azerbaijan, and the Centre for HIV/AIDS and the Global Initiative for Psychiatry in Tajikistan.