Mark Pursey

Mark Pursey

CEO and founder

Mark is an Anglo-Australian PR Executive and the founder and CEO of BTP Advisers. He has advised governments and aspiring opposition leaders from Europe, Africa, and Asia on international communications strategy. These include the administrations of Presidents Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. Mark has advised winning campaigns and ballots in the UK, US, France, Montenegro, Lithuania, Georgia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone - amongst others. Mark also has extensive experience of devising international PR campaigns for international businesses and across multiple sectors including tourism and travel, aviation, investment, energy, and extractives. Prior to setting up BTP, Mark served as a press spokesman for the Mayor of London, as spokesman for the worldwide Vodafone Group, and as Vice-President Communications for Deutsche Bank AG.

Ross Evans

Ross Evans

Head of media

Ross co-ordinates BTP's international media relations campaigns. He has worked extensively for clients in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and has counselled Heads of State and senior ministers. Prior to joining BTP Ross worked for an MP and Committee Chair in Westminster, before taking up a place in the geopolitical division of an international public relations firm. He has a BA degree in Politics from the University of Leeds.

Adam Maddock

Adam Maddock

Head of elections

Adam leads our Political Campaigns unit. He has wide experience of communications and logistical elections work at both national and local level. He worked on the broadcasting desk at Labour Party HQ during the 2001 and 2005 General Elections and was the Labour Party’s Youth and Student co-ordinator in the 1997 landslide. Prior to joining BTP, Adam spent sixteen years at the City of London Corporation, concluding as Assistant Director of Public Relations and Head of Corporate Affairs. The work of his team contributed to a number of successful outcomes for the City Corporation including the passage through Parliament of the reforms to the City's voting system and the decision to build Crossrail. Adam has an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MSc with Distinction from the University of East Anglia.

Benedict Lynn

Benedict Lynn

Head of legal communications

Benedict leads BTP’s legal and litigation communications practice, providing bespoke, global media relations campaigns in support of multi-country legal actions, defence cases before international tribunals in the Hague and elsewhere, and plaintiff and class action suits before

various courts. Benedict joined BTP with experience in international communications with a global PR firm based out of the Gulf region. Prior to the Middle East, Benedict was based in London with leading criminal justice and human rights law firm Hickman & Rose, where he handled news and media as the in-house journalist, and latterly with Linklaters, where he was instrumental in raising the media profile of their financial crime and civil litigation practices. Benedict has also worked in China for the marketing arm of a Shanghai-based business advisory firm.

Martin Newman

Martin Newman

Associate

Martin is BTP’s branding, presentation, and leadership advisory associate and founder of The Newman Partnership. Martin has 25 years’ experience working internationally to help leaders stand up and be counted. His main focus is confidential, 1-1 work with business leaders on personal impact - but he is equally at home in the worlds of sport and politics. He coaches CEO, C-Suite and high potential individuals at a number of FTSE 100 and 250 firms, as well as private businesses. Clients include GKN, HSBC, Rio Tinto, Kerry Foods, Tate & Lyle, and Vodafone. Martin was Team Coach for two winning Olympic bids (Sochi 2014 and Tokyo 2020) and continues to advise the Tokyo 2020 team.

In 2008, Martin set up The Leadership Council to bring together some of the UK’s most senior corporate and public leaders in a not-for-profit research and thought leadership body.

He regularly publishes on leadership topics and currently has a best-selling book out in Japan, ‘Personal Impact’. He lectures at business schools and universities in Europe and Asia. Martin is principal partner of The Newman Partnership, Executive Director of The Leadership Council, and founding partner of Tokyo-based Stand Consulting.

Sanja Ilic

Sanja Ilic

Head of creative

Sanja oversees all design, branding, digital, and video production for clients – whether short films for use over social media, to campaign logos, imagery, and marketing materials. She also acts a director for BTP’s sister company Shadowline Films – a TV and Film production company based in London, U.K. – and oversees BTP’s Central Europe office in Belgrade, Serbia.

Prior to BTP, Sanja managed her own European-based TV production company focusing on TV and radio advertising segments for commercial networks, and previously was managing director and executive producer for several other European film and TV production agencies, including working on a number of independent feature films, and documentaries for MTV Europe.

John Cpin

John Cpin

BTP USA

John brings deep expertise in media relations, crisis management, public relations, and international relations - including generating internal and confidential communication for high profile clients, and managing, building, protecting and growing client brands in the U.S.A. and internationally, as well as working with international diplomats and foreign governments.

John oversees BTP’s activities in the USA, Canada, and the Americas.

John started his career as a television news reporter in Long Island. He also held positions in the political arena ranging from press secretary for Kansas Congresswoman Nancy Boyda’s congressional campaign to communications director for a gubernatorial campaign in Nebraska. While in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, he held positions as a communications/ policy advisor for Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn and deputy communications director for the Illinois State Board of Education.

A first-generation American, a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, and earned his Master’s degree in communications in New York.

Jean-Paul Oury

Jean-Paul Oury

BTP France

Jean-Paul directs BTP’s media and campaign activities in the French-speaking world. With deep experience of liberal and free-market politics in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

Jean-Paul delivers international French-language media coverage in those countries as well as communications in all western European markets and the European Union functions in Brussels for BTP clients worldwide. Jean-Paul is an award-winning published author.

Ambrose Katunda

Ambrose Katunda

BTP Africa

Ambrose is manager of BTP’s office in Kampala, Uganda – covering sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to joining BTP, Ambrose served as head of communications (social media) for Uganda’s governing National Resistance Movement Party for a number of years - including during the period of two successful presidential and parliamentary general elections in 2016 and 2021.

Ambrose is a graduate of Uganda’s prestigious Makerere University, holding a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in Information Technology (Computing and Information Sciences).

Oscar Okello

Oscar Okello

Digital media

Oscar leaders BTP’s digital activities, based out of BTP’s Africa headquarters in Kampala, Uganda.

Oscar has extensive knowledge and experience of political, government, and campaign communications having worked previously for the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the governing party of Uganda, focusing on digital media, social media, graphics, animation, and ICT related work.

Oscar holds a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications Engineering from Uganda’s leading Makerere University.

David Gates

David Gates

Finance director

David has many years’ experience in the Financial Services Industry and was Chairman of Capital Planning (UK) Ltd, a successful IFA (Independent Financial Adviser) company which was sold to the Tenet group of companies. Before that he had careers in banking and the Civil Service. Recently, he was an Executive Producer with BTP’s partner company Shadowline Films on the feature film 'The Obscure Life of the Grand Duke of Corsica' starring Timothy Spall, OBE, (Mr Turner) and Peter Stormare (American Gods) which was acquired by US distributor Vertical for US and UK rights in May 2021.