Team
Overview
10 Years on…
Having run a tech PR agency for nearly a decade now – I’ve seen the cycle of boom and bust.
In that time, my fundamental view of the PR industry hasn’t changed. My basic principles running Cobalt Blue still hold true today as they were 10 years ago.
Working for a leading London-based PR consultancy, I watched staff change every 18 months or so. If people are our only commodity in PR, then why are we so bad at looking after them?
This has been my fundamental creed in founding Cobalt Blue. I wanted to get away from the constant churn of staff, the downwards blame mentality and long-work hours.
At Cobalt, we have experienced staff. Many members of the team work flexible hours that meet the way they want to work. We don’t ask our staff to sit at their desks ‘til late every night – presentism isn’t in our corporate culture.
The Team
Richard Vaux – Director
Richard Vaux has worked in consultancy public relations for nearly 20 years. He worked initially at Edelman in the mid-1980s and returned to the leading international PR consultancy a decade later, at the start of the IT boom. At Edelman, he worked in the Technology Division for a number of major companies, such as Xerox, NCR, Thomson and Texas Instruments.
Richard Vaux founded Cobalt Blue in 1997 to build upon the strategic approach learnt at leading PR Consultancies, but without the large overheads. He based Cobalt Blue in Farnham, in the heartland of the Thames Silicon Valley. Having overseen growth at Cobalt Blue for nearly a decade, he still focuses upon the agency’s core principle – ‘PR with sanity’.
He lives in Farnham and is married with three children.
Fiona Cousins – Account Director
Fiona has considerable experience as a senior consultant at leading London agencies including Shandwick and Ketchum. As a specialist in business communications and promoting the benefits of technology to both business and consumer audiences, Fiona’s client experience spans top business names including Apple Computer, BT and Xerox. Her work on BT received a commendation in the PR Week awards. With 9 years of PR, Journalism and Marketing experience Simon joins the consultancy from international Civil Engineering consultancy Scott Wilson, in Basingstoke . Before working for Scott Wilson, where he was part of the PR team that helped to successfully launch the company’s flotation on the stock exchange, Simon worked in a number of marketing roles including computer distributor Computer 2000 in Basingstoke. He is also an NCTJ trained journalist and has worked on local newspapers as a reporter and News Editor. Tina Snelling has 16 years experience in public relations, marketing communications and event management for the hi-tech, financial services, telecommunications, hardware, software, systems solutions and mobile commerce industries for both small and blue chip companies and has worked with some well known organisations including Tullett & Tokyo Liberty plc, Sun Microsystems, Oracle and IBM. Recently Tina has been working on a voluntarily basis for a campaign group established to lobby a Home Office decision which was successfully overturned. Tina managed both the press relations strategy and the direct communications with the press. As well as attending home office meetings with various ministers, Tina conducted interviews with the broadsheets, local press and broadcast press, including: Sunday Express, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Radio 4, BBC London News Room, BBC London Radio, Channel 4 News. She trained as a Chartered Institute of Marketing professional and therefore holds a degree in Marketing. She is also a member of the National Union of Journalists. Jane has worked for a number of blue chip companies over the last two decades. She joined Cobalt Blue at its inception in 1997, where she acts as Company Secretary and oversees the accounts function.
Fiona is an invaluable member of our senior team, adding creativity and dynamism to ensure the highest level of quality, deliverables and results in all areas of client servicing.
Simon Hewitt - Account Manager
Tina Snelling - Strategic Consultant
Jane Vaux - Company Secretary
Jane worked for nearly 10 years at leading City bank, Barings, in the personnel department. She also worked for British Aerospace in a number of departments, where she was a Graduate Trainee of the Year.