Olympic Experts Flood Marketplace
An exodus of ‘big draw’ Olympics PR professionals into the private sector jobs market is taking place as the Games comms machine started to dismantle this week.
As Olympics-related contracts come to an end at agencies, sponsors and organising bodies, CVs have begun hitting the city, with 75 members of LOCOG’s press team alone now seeking fresh opportunities.
PRWeek reports that the top-level post-Games moves are being led by the BBC’s head of marketing and comms for London 2012 Louisa Fyans, who has taken a role as a director at Pitch PR.
After leading the broadcaster’s Olympics comms, Fyans is leaving in December after 11 years at the BBC to join the agency.
Henry Chappell, CEO of Pitch, praised Fyans’ ‘excellent track record’, not only for her work during the Olympics but also across major sport events and various BBC departments.
Fyans also revealed that five other Olympics-related comms colleagues are ending their BBC contracts and seeking agency or in-house roles.
Recruitment firms have reported that Games-related CVs started being passed to them as early as mid-August, but the influx is now far greater as the majority of LOCOG’s 100-strong team leave their paid roles this week.
The most senior comms figures around the Olympics, such as LOCOG’s director of comms and public affairs Jackie Brock-Doyle and head of PR and media Joanna Manning-Cooper, are expected to stay until the end of the year.
