As the Client Director at Profile, Sam leads the team that creates new content for clients and projects this content throughout the wider world. He is responsible for ensuring the agency is doing everything in its power to build clients’ profiles in positive, proactive, and creative ways.
He also works side-by-side with clients, offering advice on all their communications activity and providing ongoing strategic oversight on their personal profile. He helped launch the agency in 2021.
A native New Zealander, Sam has over eight years’ experience across communications, journalism, public relations, and politics. He started his career as a sports journalist, before working as a political advisor and press secretary for MPs and Ministers at New Zealand’s Parliament.
He also worked for a boutique PR firm in his hometown of Wellington before moving to the UK, where he has held corporate communications roles at the asset management firm Aegon and the PR agency Grayling.
"Business leaders often think it’s too risky to challenge the status quo and say something their industry peers may disagree with. But sticking within your ‘corporate safe zone’ can only get you so far – in fact, trying to keep everyone happy actually does more damage to your leadership credentials in the long-term."
"As an industry, we can offer a lot more value by challenging clients to stick their head above the parapet and add something fresh and interesting to the public discussion. It’s not about saying something contentious for the sake of it – it’s about setting a robust strategy that ensures their narrative builds a credible reputation in a meaningful, lasting, and positive way."
"PR agencies and comms advisors are guilty of nodding their heads to keep clients happy – in short, they're afraid to rock the boat and instead opt to keep everything on an even keel. They adopt clients’ tired corporate messaging and predictable industry narratives, even when it’s not generating cut-through with audiences."