Our consultants and partners

Passionate about higher education, Justin has worked in the sector for over 30 years.

He came to Communications Management from the University of Hertfordshire’s Communications Department, setting up the company’s education practice before taking over and shaping its vision as the leading consultancy for education and skills clients.

He has worked across all areas of the sector – including schools, business, professional and higher education – and has led and delivered many cross-education campaigns.

He started his career in journalism and was awarded Reporter of The Year for his investigative features.

Michael brings expertise in brand and reputation in both the education and private sectors. At Teesside University he had Executive Team responsibility for strategic marketing, branding, communications, student recruitment and fundraising. He was Director of Communications and Marketing at Durham University. In the private sector, Michael worked in several marketing, advertising and PR agencies and was Head of Communications for Reg Vardy plc, Europe’s leading motor retail group.

An adviser to the House of Lords and global trustee to the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Michael has led our projects with the University of Oxford, John Hopkins University (USA) and Dublin City University.

Jessica’s expertise covers communications and PR strategy, digital communications, external affairs, media relations, crisis communications, media training, stakeholder engagement, and influencer communications.

A former education correspondent at The Guardian and reporter for the Times Higher Education, Jessica became Head of Communications at UCL where she led the communications strategy for its education mission, establishing a regular podcast on student experience and teaching innovations.

Jessica has worked in government communications and media relations at both the Home Office and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on the complex issues around business performance, growth and countering extremism.

Anna Ford is a communications and media consultant to universities, research organisations and science-based campaigns, with particular expertise in research, climate and environmental story telling. Anna has spent the best part of a decade in university communications teams. During this time, she led the media and social teams at the University of Sussex, and captained media relations at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment.

At Sussex, Anna professionalised the press office, introducing processes which strengthened the university’s ability to respond to the pressing reputational challenges of the higher education environment. At the same time, Anna empowered her team to prioritise research communications, creating a framework to promote the research with the most newsworthiness and strategic value to the organisation. On social media, Anna expanded the social media team to include youth expertise, and successfully advocated for the university’s social experts to have a ‘seat at the table’.

At LSE, Anna’s work included promoting the university’s world-renowned climate academics, including thought leadership and social content campaigns around COP26 and an IPPC report respectively, leading to impactful outcomes.

Before her move to higher education, Anna spent eight years in government press offices, handling the media for a variety of challenging issues. She became the lead press officer to Keir Starmer when he led a public service, supporting him on high profile issues and preparing him for media interviews.

Andy Howells has more than 15 years’ experience in the higher education sector – including in-house roles at Universities UK International, NCUK (the international student pathways partner) and within four universities. Andy was the Deputy Director for External Relations at Universities UK International (championing the UK’s universities on a global stage) for five years, and served as the Chief Marketing Officer at NCUK, supporting universities with the recruitment of international students and global partnerships. During his career he has worked in communications and engagement roles at the University of Southampton (leading on global strategy for engaging with alumni and supporters across 180 countries), Royal Holloway University of London, University of Wales, and Liverpool John Moores University.

Constantino Panagopulos has worked at universities in the UK, the United States, and in Türkiye. He has extensive experience in managing broad-based communications channels, media coverage, social media and video-based content – particularly supporting the sciences. He worked in the communications team of the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences for seven years, where he played a major role in coaching scientists as effective communicators and promoted the school’s research expertise and its credentials internationally. He has also worked at Koç University, Istanbul as a Communications Specialist with support for academics based in the Graduate School of Business as well as advising the Vice President for Research and Development. He has a part-time role at the University of Cambridge, where he leads communications for a major new effort to monitor the environment with AI.