PR heaven or hell on Asda guest lecture agenda

Russell Craig, who also previously headed up external communications at Manchester Airport, will deliver the public guest lecture ‘A giant’s window into British society: PR heaven or hell’ from 6-7pm on Tuesday 8 November at the University’s Rose Bowl building.

The event, which is part of a series of lectures hosted by Leeds Business School and sponsored by Yorkshire Bank, is free. Places must be booked online at: http://bit.ly/RussellCraig.

Paul Houghton, of Leeds Business School, who organises the series, commented: “Russell enjoys an esteemed and inspiring career in public relations, and has worked for some of the UK’s biggest brands and names. I’m very much looking forward to hearing about his experiences and also what it’s like to play such an instrumental role in shouldering the responsibility of the reputation of a company.”

After training as a journalist, Russell became a Press Officer for Tesco in 1998, where he helped launch Tesco.com, before he moved to Centrica as a Media Relations Manager for its telecoms business.

He then followed that by becoming Manchester Airport’s Head of Communications when he was 26-years-old. During his 10 year career with the airport, which included the last five years as Group Head of External Communications, Russell oversaw airport acquisitions and disposals, the evolution of airport security, hundreds of major incidents and learnt the art of fronting media interviews.

He joined Asda in 2013 where he is responsible for all aspects of media relations from product placement to communicating the company’s corporate strategy.

Paul added: “This year Leeds Business School is celebrating 25 years of PR education.  As part of this celebration, and drawing on his background as a PR professional, Russell will show how PR fits within an organisation in terms of understanding and communicating with the customer base.”