Big Partnership gets bigger with account wins and new people

Barr has joined as account director from KPMG Scotland, where he was head of corporate affairs and Natasha Lobley, ex-PR manager of Standard Life Bank, has joined as account manager. Both will work in the Glasgow office on the Clydesdale Bank account, which the consultancy is providing UK-wide PR support for.

Katie de Courcy, a former account manager from London-based Staniforth PR, is joining as a senior account manager in Big’s Edinburgh office.

Pamela Dodds, who is replacing Nick White who left to join Weber Shandwick, joins from Linda Young PR and will be based in its Glasgow office, working with Gavin Cameron.

Shona Hendry joins the Aberdeen team from Aberdeen City Council where she was a press officer and journalists Graeme Watson from the Lanarkshire Extra and Lauren Meldrum from the Edinburgh Herald & Post, join the Glasgow and Fife offices, respectively.

Neil Gibson, one of the founding directors of the consultancy group, said the recruitment drive was due to a raft of account wins including Clydesdale Bank, EMAP, T-Mobile, Core Utility Solutions, Clyde Valley Drilling, smartycars.com and the Senior British Open 2007.

“The new recruits are a direct result of a significant increase in new clients since the beginning of the year,” he said.

“We’ve added considerable expertise and talent to our existing teams to enable us to maintain and improve delivery standardds across our client base.”

Gibson said the account wins constituted fee income growth in March alone in excess of £300,000.

Meanwhile, the firm’s Aberdeen office is set to reach turnover of £1m this year, with new business from Maersk Oil, The Chess Group and OPITO fuelling the growth, combined with an increase in events management business.