Patrick Harrison
Former Press Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales & Director of Reputation Management and Strategic Media Relations at Weber Shandwick
Biography
Patrick Harrison is a Director at Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s largest and most awarded PR agencies. With over 25 years’ experience, Patrick provides senior strategic communications advice to a wide range of clients including multinational corporations, HNWIs, Government Ministers, and charities. In his advice, training and crisis handling, Patrick draws on his extensive experience to enhance clients’ abilities to cope under intense media scrutiny and to maximize proactive opportunities. Patrick was The Prince of Wales’ Press Secretary for over ten years, playing a key role in rejuvenating HRH’s reputation, introducing his wife to public life and protecting Princes William’s and Harry’s privacy. By changing the way in which the Royal Household communicated, including using social media, Patrick more effectively promoted the work and role of The Prince, his family, and associated organizations. He led the multi-stakeholder communications teams for two royal weddings and official tours to 37 countries. In 2010 Patrick was made a Lieutenant of the Victorian Order (LVO) in recognition of his work for The Prince of Wales. Patrick began his career as a journalist, after which he spent eight years promoting and explaining Government policy under both Conservative and Labour administrations.
Lecture intro
The Making of a Modern Monarchy
Reputation specialist Patrick Harrison shares his experiences of working for 15 years at the center of one of the world’s most recognizable institutions, the British Royal Family. He will explain how, against a backdrop of rapidly shifting media landscape both in the UK and globally, he and his colleagues helped navigate this most ancient of institutions from a position of reactive defensiveness to proactive engagement by moving communications considerations to the heart of decision-making.
