Fellowships conferred on PR duo

TWO of Scotland’s best-known public relations personalities have received fellowships from their professional body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Amid the hullabaloo of last week’s annual awards ceremony of the Scottish branch of the CIPR (reported on Spike), fellowships were conferred on Jane Cumming and Nora Farrell.

Cumming is the managing director of Platform PR, which has branches in Beauly, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Previously, she was the head of Corporate Relations at the North of Scotland Water Authority and, before that, the head of PR at City of Edinburgh District Council. She is a past chair of the CIPR in Scotland.

Farrell is managing director in charge of Weber Shandwick’s Scottish operations and member of the company’s UK management board.

Prior to that, she was managing director of The PR Centre, which she established herself 16 years ago.

This followed five years with Saatchi & Saatchi’s Scottish PR consultancy, Hall Associates, where she was also managing director.

Also at the ceremony, a lifetime recognition award went to Michael Murphy, famed for setting up PR Consultants Scotland, one of the first PR consultancies in Scotland, which later became Shandwick, then Weber Shandwick. He moved to Weber Shandwick in Hong Kong then left to set up Hatch Group and is now the chief executive officer of Trimedia International.