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Roland Rudd

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Roland Rudd
Born
Roland Dacre Rudd

April 1961 (age 63)[1]
Kensington, England
NationalityBritish
EducationMillfield School
Alma materRegent's Park College, Oxford
OccupationPublic relations executive
EmployerFGS Global
SpouseSophie Hale
Parent(s)Tony Rudd
Ethne Fitzgerald
RelativesAmber Rudd (sister)

Roland Dacre Rudd (born April 1961)[1] is the founder and chairman of FGS Global (formerly Finsbury), a public relations firm, and holds a variety of other charitable and non-executive posts. Rudd was educated at Oxford University, becoming President of the Oxford Union before starting a career in journalism that he left to found Finsbury. He sold that company to WPP plc in 2001, making an estimated £40 million. He is strongly in favour of British engagement with the European Union and has campaigned for electoral reform.[2]

Personal life and education

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Rudd was born in April 1961,[1] one of four children of Tony Rudd, a stockbroker;[3][4] his sisters are Amanda, Melissa and Amber, who was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament until September 2019, when she left the party over its stance on Brexit; she then sat as an independent MP until standing down at the subsequent general election.[5][6]

As a child he wanted to be prime minister. He was educated at Millfield School.[3] He read philosophy and theology at Regent's Park College, Oxford, describing himself as "perhaps a lazy Christian."[7]

He was elected president of the Oxford Union on his third attempt.[3][8] At Oxford he was friends with Hugo Dixon with whom he travelled to America to work on Walter Mondale's campaign for the Democratic Party nomination. They transferred to rival Gary Hart when Mondale could not accommodate them.[7]

Rudd is married to Sophie Hale, a designer of womenswear.[3]

Career

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After graduating, Rudd worked as a policy coordinator[9] for David Owen and the Social Democratic Party (he was the first SDP president of the Oxford Union).[4] He was a financial journalist at the Sunday Correspondent and the Financial Times.[10]

At the Sunday Correspondent, Rudd became friends with Robert Peston,[4] now political editor for ITV News, and they worked together at the Financial Times where the two were known as "the Pest and the Rat", Rudd taking the nickname in reference to the then popular children's television character Roland Rat.[3]

In 1994, Rudd left the Financial Times to found Finsbury with Rupert Younger.[4] Rudd told The Independent in 2011, "I was at the Financial Times, writing about M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and conglomerates. The takeover world always fascinated me. I had wanted to build my own business and could see a gap for a financial PR company which was utterly professional. Right from the start, I hired only the most financially literate staff and was determined to have the top FTSE clients."[4] Finsbury reportedly ended up with more than a quarter of FTSE100 companies as clients.[3]

The firm was sold to Martin Sorrell's WPP plc in 2001 in a deal estimated to have earned Rudd £40 million.[3][4] In 2011, Finsbury merged with Robinson Lerer & Montgomery of New York.[11] Rudd continued as chairman of the merged firm. In 2014, RLM Finsbury rebranded as just Finsbury.[12]

In January 2021, Finsbury, The Glover Park Group (GPG), and Hering Schuppener completed their merger and management buy-in of 49.99%, and became known as Finsbury Glover Hering. Following the merger, Rudd and Carter Eskew, founder of GPG, served as co-chairs of the new firm.[13][14] In December 2021, Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen & Co. merged and rebranded as FGS Global,[15] with Rudd as global co-chair.[16] In April 2023, Rudd helped negotiate a deal with KKR buying a 30% stake in FGS Global that valued the company at about $1.4 billion.[17][18] In August 2024, Rudd helped negotiate a deal for KKR to buy WPP's controlling stake in FGS Global that valued the company at about $1.7 billion.[19]

Politics

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Rudd believes in electoral reform and campaigned in support of the introduction of the Alternative vote system in the British referendum of 2011.[4] The proposal failed. He is strongly in favour of British engagement with Europe, and is chairman of Business for New Europe,[9][20] a member of the Centre for European Reform's advisory board,[10] and Chair of the People's Vote campaign.[21] As chairman of the People's Vote campaign, he oversaw a boardroom coup that ended up destroying the campaign at a critical juncture in UK politics.[22][23]

Rudd is a supporter of the Labour Party and is close to a number of Labour politicians.[3] Lord Mandelson is godfather to one of Rudd's children[24] and Rudd campaigned for Mandelson in his Hartlepool constituency in the 2001 general election.[7] Rudd was one of the "Four Wise Men" who advised Blair in 2007 on life after leaving office.[3] Rudd has also been linked to Ed Balls and Tessa Jowell of Labour, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.[7] He subsequently damaged his relationship with many figures in the Labour Party and elsewhere in politics due to his controversial role in the demise of the People's Vote campaign in 2019.[25]

Other appointments

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Rudd has been Chair of Tate since 2021.[26] He serves as Specially Appointed Commissioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and is an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society.[27][28] He is currently Chair of Governors at Millfield School,[29] a trustee for the Speakers for Schools programme,[30] and a trustee for the Made by Dyslexia campaign.[31] Rudd is a trustee of the Bayreuth Festival[32][33] and was on the Board of the Royal Opera House from 2011 to 2017.[34] He is a visiting fellow at Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation, part of the Saïd Business School.[35]

Open Britain controversy

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On 27 October 2019, Rudd used his role as the chair of Open Britain—just one of five organisations under the People's Vote umbrella—to announce he wanted to sack James McGrory and Tom Baldwin, as the campaign's director and director of communications. More than 40 staff members walked out in protest at this decision and Rudd's effort to impose Patrick Heneghan as the campaign's interim chief executive. At a subsequent staff meeting Rudd was criticised as a city PR man who had rarely been seen in the offices and a motion of no confidence in his role was passed by 40 votes to 3. Baldwin had earlier accused Rudd of taking a "wrecking ball" to a successful campaign through a "boardroom coup" while failing to consult other organisations in the campaign.[36][37] Rudd later resigned as chair of Open Britain but retained control of money and data through a new holding company he had formed for the purpose called Baybridge UK.[38] In an excoriating article for the Spectator, Alastair Campbell, the former head of strategy and communications in Tony Blair's Downing Street, accused Rudd of putting his personal status ahead of efforts to stop Brexit through a new referendum.[39] In 2020, it was announced that former employees were preparing to sue Rudd personally.[40]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c ROLAND DACRE RUDD, Company Check; retrieved 18 May 2015.
  2. ^ Guerrera, Francesco (4 March 2016). "The man Cameron is counting on to keep Britain in Europe". POLITICO. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lucy Kellaway (12 August 2011). "The networker". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Margareta Pagano,"Poacher turned discreet gamekeeper", The Independent, 24 April 2011; retrieved 23 May 2015.
  5. ^ Tim Shipman, "Energy secretary burns with ambition for other women", The Sunday Times, 17 May 2015, p. 17.
  6. ^ "Amber Rudd quits cabinet and Conservative party". BBC News. 7 September 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d Chris Blackhurst, Roland Rudd Interview, Management Today, 23 July 2007.
  8. ^ Media Guardian 100 2013: 75. Roland Rudd. The Guardian, 1 September 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  9. ^ a b Roland Rudd. Business for New Europe. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  10. ^ a b Roland Rudd Chairman. Finsbury.com; retrieved 18 May 2015.
  11. ^ Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson & Tim Bradshaw, WPP merges Finsbury and RLM, Financial Times, 20 July 2011; retrieved 20 May 2015.
  12. ^ Diana Bradley, RLM Finsbury rebrands to underscore global ambitions PR Week, 17 September 2014; retrieved 20 May 2015. (subscription required)
  13. ^ Sims, Maja Pawinska (11 January 2021). "Finsbury Glover Hering Names Global Leadership After Merger". PRovoke Media. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  14. ^ Barnes, Steve (12 January 2021). "News of Firms: Finsbury Glover Hering Debuts". O'Dwyers PR. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  15. ^ Scheppe, Michael (13 October 2021). "Finsbury Glover Hering fusioniert ein weiteres Mal – nun mit dem US-Konkurrenten". Handelsblatt.
  16. ^ "Roland Rudd". fgsglobal.com. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  17. ^ "FGS/KKR: Rudd letter day is a money-spinner for City PRs". Financial Times. 6 April 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  18. ^ Massoudi, Arash; Levingston, Ivan (6 April 2023). "KKR set to buy stake in communications group FGS Global". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  19. ^ Meddings, Sabah (8 August 2024). "KKR Deal Shines Spotlight on PR Power Broker Roland Rudd". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  20. ^ "Roland Rudd". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  21. ^ "Roland Rudd (@RolandRudd) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  22. ^ "How People's Vote destroyed itself". www.newstatesman.com. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  23. ^ Fletcher, Martin (20 November 2019). "How People's Vote destroyed itself". New Statesman. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  24. ^ Roland Rudd, Debretts.com; retrieved 23 May 2015.
  25. ^ Campbell, Alastair. "How a PR guru hijacked the People's Vote campaign". The Spectator.
  26. ^ "Roland Rudd".
  27. ^ "Governance | Royal Hospital Chelsea".
  28. ^ "Our Ambassadors | Alzheimer's Society".
  29. ^ "Governing Body - at Millfield School in Street, Somerset".
  30. ^ "Meet Our Visionary Trustees".
  31. ^ "MADE BY DYSLEXIA - Charity 1180256".
  32. ^ "Structure".
  33. ^ "In brief: Rudd becomes Tate trustee, Harkable up for sale, Aspectus promotes Focas, Popcorn's wine win".
  34. ^ "Roland Dacre RUDD personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  35. ^ "Visiting Fellows | Saïd Business School".
  36. ^ Griggs, Ian. "People's Vote campaign staff strike back against Finsbury's Roland Rudd following sackings". PR Week. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  37. ^ Fletcher, Martin (20 November 2019). "How People's Vote destroyed itself". NewStatesman.com. New Statesman. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  38. ^ Syal, Rajeev (15 November 2019). "Roland Rudd exits People's Vote amid continuing rancour". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  39. ^ Campbell, Alastair. "FEATURES How a PR guru hijacked the People's Vote campaign". Spectator.co.uk. The Spectator. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  40. ^ "Private Eye | People's Vote : How Ruddy stupid…". www.private-eye.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020.
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