Our Team

Geoffrey Bowden - managing director

geoffrey bowden A former journalist, Geoffrey was chairman of Westminster Public Affairs and managing director of Nexus Structured Communications. He led a successful management buy-out of NSC to form GB Communications. He has served as press adviser to the Audit Commission for Local Government and the NHS in England and Wales; press office director to the former NHS Trust Federation, a predecessor to the NHS Confederation, and PR adviser to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Clients Geoffrey has worked with and advised include:

  • Institute of Healthcare Management
  • National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
  • Nursing & Midwifery Council
  • NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (now Business Services Authority)
  • Resource Partners
  • General Medical Clinics plc
  • Foundation for Liver Research
  • British Association for the Study of the Liver
  • Bio Products Laboratory (BPL).

He speaks widely at health conferences around the country on communications issues. He is the co-author with Roy Lilley of 'Managing the Message' published by Radcliffe Medical Press. He is the chairman of the judging panel of the Nexus Annual Report Awards. In other areas of the public sector he helped the National Schools Curriculum Board launch the national curriculum advising Sir Ron Dearing and his then deputy Chris Woodhead. He also advised the Local Government Commission on the announcement of boundary changes prior to the 1997 General Election.

Outside the public sector, the clients he has worked with are as diverse as former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev' the Governments of Jamaica, Belize, and the Windward Isles and round-the-world yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. He is on the editorial board of HealthInvestor magazine.

Roy Lilley - associate director

roy lilley Roy Lilley is an associate director of GB Communications PR. Probably one of the best known broadcasters and commentators on health issues, Roy offers a unique insight into the health sector. Not only does Roy broadcast widely on health issues,  he is also a firm favourite as a speaker at many of the country's leading healthcare organisation's annual conferences. He has a regular column in Pharmaceutical Marketing and occasionally provides a guest column in Guardian Society and Guardian Unlimited and several other national newspapers.

He has worked with Geoffrey Bowden on a range of client projects in particular media training where he has always been a key part of the training programmes provided for such clients as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service. He also supports the consultancy's work with the Institute of Healthcare Management.

Roy is a prolific author with the majority of his titles dealing with health policy issues and with Geoffrey Bowden co-authored 'Managing the Message' a communications toolkit for healthcare managers. He was a visiting Fellow at Imperial College and a special advisor to the number 10 Policy Unit.

Simon Williams - account director

Simon has 15 years experience in healthcare communications agencies and in-house, including the NHS. He has an eclectic background in developing marketing, medical education, corporate communications and engagement programmes. This includes award-winning professional education projects for prescription pharmaceutical clients at various stages of product lifecycle, corporate marketing and comms strategies for NHS Foundation Trusts (FTs), secretariat services for health professional associations and rapid stakeholder engagement programmes (NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme).

At another agency Simon helped to develop the Marketing Insights for NHS Decision Makers educational programme for senior NHS executives and clinicians on behalf of pharmaceutical company Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). The project was rolled out to almost 20 NHS Foundation Trusts and is seen as a new model for industry–NHS collaboration, successfully transferring professional marketing expertise to FTs keen to thrive in a more market-oriented NHS. Marketing Insights was shortlisted for the 2009 Communiqué Awards and the 2010 Pharmaceutical Marketing Excellence Awards.  

Simon was also in the team behind The Decision Framework for STEMI, an online resource allocation tool for A&E clinicians and managers to help provide multiple therapy options, including thrombolysis, in emergency treatment of heart attacks (Boehringer-Ingelheim). The initiative won the Best Professional Education Project in the 2008 Communiqué Awards.

Healthcare clients Simon has worked with include:

  • Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust - communications capacity building, marketing, business case copy-writing
  • Boehringer-Ingelheim - medical education and repositioning of therapy - emergency thrombolytic treatment for heart attacks (Metalyse)
  • British Association for the Study of the Liver – secretariat and public affairs
  • Ferring Pharmaceuticals – taboo-breaking patient awareness camaign for adult nocturia (Desmopressin)
  • Janssen – Marketing Insights for NHS Decision makers
  • Leicestershire County Primary Care Trust – IAPT rapid engagement - qualitative research and analysis
  • Lundbeck – Lundbeck Award for Best Practice in Depression - for GPs
  • National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - NICE Citizens Council - media handling
  • Nutricia/Danone – infant nutrition healthcare professional relations programme
  • Schering-Plough – professional education and disease awareness for treatment of hepatitis C (Viraferonpeg)
  • Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust - corporate media relations.

Simon is also a pro bono communications adviser to a health charity in Sussex.

Toni Slater - senior account manager

Toni Slater

Toni is a senior account manager who has worked on medical education, publishing and PR assignments for over a decade. Working on both printed material and web-based news and information services, she has written and edited copy aimed at both patient and healthcare professional audiences in a wide range of disease areas. Apart from her writing and editing skills she has wealth of experience in print procurement and production (with GBCPR's strategic partner Oyster Healthcare) and previously with Medical Education Network and Haymarket Media. Toni also has wide experience in web project and event management for medical associations.

Among the many clients she has worked with are such well known names as:

  • Sanofi Aventis
  • GSK
  • BPL
  • National Association for Colitis and Crohn's
  • British Society of Gastroentrology
  • Diabetes UK
  • British Association for the Study of the Liver
  • USB Pharma
  • Abbott Pharmaceuticals
  • Roche Pharmaceuticals and Proctor Gamble.

Toni holds a Sociology degree - BSc (Hons), a postgraduate diploma in Printing and Publishing and a diploma in Nutritional Therapy. She is a member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy.

Jancis Graves - senior account excutive

jancis graves Jancis is a senior account executive. She is a communications professional who has worked at a senior level, on both external and internal communication projects, and with a background in television journalism across a range of broadcast news and documentary programming. She has specialised in healthcare over a number of years. Among the healthcare projects she has worked on are:

  • Roche's Tarceva, a drug for lung cancer
  • Pfizer's Lyrica, a drug for neuropathic pain and Xalatan for the treatment of glaucoma
  • 3M's BacLite screening tool for MRSA
  • Procter and Gamble's Asacol for ulcerative colitis
  • General Medical Clinics - a private healthcare provider who were Launching the first public/private NHS Walk-in Centre at a mainline London station
  • Institute of Healthcare Management
  • Katherine Corbett Clinics
  • Foundation for Liver Research
  • Gilead Sciences
  • National Patient Safety Agency
  • Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Luska Mengham - junior account executive Luska Mengham

Before joining GBCPR, Luska studied Art History at Sussex University obtaining a First Class BA Hons.

Luska has extensive experience of organising events and managing projects, including events and exhibitions geared towards activity and discussion around themes to do with education, systems of knowledge production, and community engagement.

For GBCPR, she currently works on a range of accounts for clients including the British Association for the Study of the Liver, the British Viral Hepatitis Group and the Association of Translation Companies.