· Lomond Corporate Relations will specialise in strategic consultancy in integrated Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
· The managing partners are Grayling’s former leaders for continental Europe
· The management team will work closely with an international senior advisory board, including Lord Peter Chadlington
23rd February 2022 – Two of Grayling’s former European directors have formed Lomond Corporate Relations, a consultancy that will specialise in Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. Issues relating to regulatory changes in Europe will be a particular focus.
The headquarters of the new company will be in Prague, but the consulting team will service clients from all over Europe. Lomond’s founding partners are Jan Šimůnek and Ben Petter, formerly the continental European CEO and COO for Grayling, the international communications firm. Jan Šimůnek had been with Grayling since 1996, Ben Petter since 2010. Both were responsible for leading international client accounts in the financial services, ICT, healthcare, energy and industrial sectors.
Lomond’s team will work closely with a team of leading international experts in Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. The “Senior Advisory Board” consists of:
· Lord Chadlington, founder of communications companies Shandwick and Huntsworth and a former advisor to Sir John Major and David Cameron
· Malgorzata O’Shaughnessy, who founded Visa’s office in Poland and, for 30 years, managed the company’s activities across the CEE region
· Frank Schönrock, former head of Edelman’s Frankfurt office and Grayling’s European Chair of Crisis & Issues Management
· Loretta Ahmed, founder and CEO of Houbara Communications, and PRCA MENA’s Middle East PR Leader of the Year in 2020
“Each of us has decades of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs consulting experience at a pan-European level. Our goal is to leverage this international experience to offer our clients in Central Europe a superior and highly specialised consulting service,” said Jan Šimůnek, Managing Partner of Lomond Corporate Relations. “We are seeing a much greater emphasis from clients on the effectiveness of integrated communications campaigns, alongside the need for truly senior-level consultancy. These are the competitive advantages on which we want to build Lomond,” he added.
Lord Chadlington said: “The trend in Western Europe over the last few years has been towards smaller but highly specialised consultancies set up by top executives from international communications companies. Many clients find this concept attractive because it offers them the best of both worlds: the international experience of large networks combined with the flexibility of a boutique agency, with a very senior day-to-day contact at all times. Lomond will offer exactly that. It
is proof that the trend is now moving into Central and Eastern Europe and has something to offer companies here too.”
