Insights

Hawthorn Advisors is pleased to announce the senior appointments of Victoria Wallin and Richard Suchet to support the growth of the consultancy.

Both Wallin and Suchet join Hawthorn as Partners, after co-leading the Corporate Communications practice at Portland.

In addition to Wallin and Suchet, existing Hawthorn consultants, Jon Wynne-Jones, formerly Head of External Communications at dmg media, and Mark Burr, previously Deputy Director of European Policy at News Corp, have both been promoted to Partner.

They join the existing board of Partners; co-founders, John Evans and Sir Ben Elliot; former editor of the Today programme, Sarah Sands; former BBC political correspondent, Ross Hawkins; Steve Atkinson, ex Group Corporate Affairs Director at Standard Chartered Bank; and previous COO of King’s College, Anna Maria Clarke. 

Wallin joins with over 20 years’ experience advising clients – from international corporates to disruptive start-ups, membership bodies and campaign groups – such as Wimbledon, Pfizer, Heathrow and the NSPCC.

Suchet joins Hawthorn after almost seven years at Portland where he advised a range of international and regional brands and businesses including Netflix, Universal Music, KPMG and Snapchat. A former journalist and broadcaster, Suchet was previously correspondent for Sky News and LBC.

Both Wallin and Suchet will report to Hawthorn co-founder & CEO, John Evans who commented: “Victoria and Richard bring invaluable experience. They both have huge energy and ambition and will be a terrific cultural fit at Hawthorn. We have ended our 10^th year with double digit growth and an expanding team of over 70 consultants. This ongoing success is contingent on hiring the best talent and Victoria and Richard, together with a number of other hires we’ve made recently, will allow us to continue to scale.”

Wallin said: “As one of London’s fastest growing, independent strategic communications consultancies and with a presence across the UK and US, I’m thrilled to be joining Hawthorn and look forward to working with the team in delivering impactful communication strategies for our clients.”

Suchet added: “With its international client base – from private and public companies, multi-nationals and governments to fast-growth businesses – and impressive team of consultants, this is an incredibly exciting time to be joining Hawthorn and I’m very much looking forward to supporting and delivering the next stage of growth.”

Evans continued: “It’s also great to be promoting Jon Wynne-Jones and Mark Burr to Partner. Both Jon and Mark have been instrumental in driving growth over recent years and their promotions reflect their ongoing contribution to the business.”