John Mattison, B.Sc. (Econ), MIPR

John is a former financial journalist with the Evening Standard and Sunday Times who has worked in corporate and financial public relations for over 20 years, advising clients ranging from start-ups to global corporates. Prior to establishing Mattison Public Relations, he worked as a senior director in London for the world’s three largest public relations consultancies: Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton and Shandwick. The experience gained in these three major consultancies is now available directly to clients without the associated bureaucracy and overheads of a big organisation.

John’s experience in public relations is extensive. He has advised British Gas, Siebe, Vodafone and many other blue chip organisations. In the professional services sector clients have included Accenture, Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Slaughter & May. Financial services clients have included Aviva, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland and the New York Stock Exchange.

John is a graduate in Economics from the London School of Economics and a former elected Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Nick Mattison, B.A. (Hons), MCIPR

Nick joined the consultancy early in 1996 after three years as an equity and derivatives broker in the City, where he specialised in media and technology companies at Durlacher (now Panmure Gordon), recognised as a leading investment bank in this field.

At Mattison Public Relations he works across most clients but primarily focuses on the financial and professional services sector.

Clients that Nick has worked with include Accenture, AIG, Anglo American, Beachcrofts, DTZ (Donaldsons), Kingston Smith, NB Real Estate, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, Royal & SunAlliance, Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters), Trowers & Hamlins, Willis and the London Metal Exchange.

Nick is a graduate in Economic and Social History from the University of Liverpool. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and of the International Building Press.

Paul Arvanitopoulos, M.A. (Hons)

Paul Arvanitopoulos has worked for Mattison Public Relations since May 2002. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1998 with a degree in History. Paul had acquired over three years experience working in marketing for a property consultancy and a City shipping firm before deciding to take up a career in public relations.

Paul has worked with clients such as APSCo, DTZ (Donaldsons), McGrigors, Trowers & Hamlins, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, Royal & SunAlliance, UHY Hacker Young and giant group plc.

Special Adviser

David Brotzen

David Brotzen is a crisis communications specialist with over 15 years’ experience covering many industries, including food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and service industries.

He founded the reputation protection consultancy Brotzen Mayne Limited (www.brotzen-mayne.co.uk) in August 1999 after heading the Crisis Division at international public relations consultancy Hill & Knowlton for six years. Prior to that, he worked in senior positions in the Crisis Management Division at Burson-Marsteller.

David has provided communications counsel and strategic advice on a broad range of crises and other issues. He now draws on this experience to advise high-profile national and international organisations on preventive strategies to protect their corporate reputations before and during a crisis. He specialises in: mapping out the reputational risks; “war-gaming” through contentious issues; reviewing crisis response procedures; auditing companies; and developing crisis training programmes for senior management around the world.

David has delivered over 100 crisis communications training programmes and crisis simulations worldwide and has led knowledge share and skills development workshops for crisis communications experts across Europe, America and the Asia-Pacific region. He has also prepared crisis communications plans and contingency plans for many organisations.

Associates

Catherine Sirikanda

Catherine Sirikanda has over ten years experience in corporate and financial communications.  She joined Mattison Public Relations after five years as a PR Manager at the London Stock Exchange where she was responsible for press campaigns across a number of the Exchange's product areas, including its rapidly expanding ETF market, highly successful international listings business and partnership with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Catherine also played a key part in the Exchange's financial communications during a period when it was subject to several takeover bids and completed two acquisitions.

Prior to the London Stock Exchange she was a Senior Press Officer for the Mayor of London, where she kick-started the media campaign for London's 2012 Olympic bid and managed media relations around the Mayor's work on Planning and Economic Development, helping to attract capital into London's major regeneration projects.

Having worked for two globally renowned organisations, Catherine has extensive experience in issues management and crisis communications, and wide-ranging international media experience.

She started her career at Hill and Knowlton where she was an Account Executive in the Public Affairs team, having previously worked at the thinktank Demos.  Catherine holds a first class degree from Trinity College, Cambridge and a Masters in Eastern European politics from University College London.

Meziane Lasfer, PhD

Meziane Lasfer is Professor in Finance and Director of the MSc Finance programme at the Cass Business School (City University), which he joined in 1990. He teaches Corporate Finance, Financial Analysis, Research project Management and Financial Economics to MBA, MSc and PhD students.

Meziane is also a Visiting Professor at the Universite Paris Dauphine, as well as the University of Bergamo, Italy. He is also an external consultant for the Financial Services Authority.

He specialises in research on a number of finance-related topics including asset pricing, corporate restructuring, debt financing, dividend policy, fundamentals of stock returns, ownership structure and SMEs.

Meziane has undertaken projects specially commissioned by, among others BP, CIMA, ICAEW, and NAPF. His work has been published internationally in both academic and professional journals and he has spoken frequently at conferences both in the UK and overseas. He also runs executive education for organisations such as Goldman Sachs and Lloyds TSB.

Meziane’s role at Mattison Public Relations is to advise on the feasibility, sourcing and design of commissioned research and to report on and access academic studies which are relevant to our clients’ interests.