James Darley

Executive Vice-President

In 19 years with Chelgate, James Darley has made an important contribution to the firm's considerable growth. He has worked with clients in education, industry, the professions, the public and voluntary sectors, on programmes covering corporate, public affairs, community, planning, environmental and business-to-business issues.

Before joining Chelgate, and following early experience as a newspaperman, James spent some 20 years in PR consultancy, much of it as an independent adviser engaged for specialist skills by larger agencies and by clients. As a consequence his experience, particularly of press relations and corporate affairs, within the industrial and retail sectors, has been unusually broad. Major public companies for whom he undertook communication projects as an individual practitioner include Kerr-McGee Oil, Pilgrim Air, Fairview Estates, Nestle and Giltspur.

Also in a solo capacity, he received the Institute of Public Relations 1991 Sword of Excellence award for special programmes, the most heavily contested category attracting entries from more than 30 consultancies and in-house PR departments of major organisations.