Welcome (back) Phil Dorward - CAFC Comms Consultant
Phil was one of the interim Comms consultants employed during the two year gap between Head of Comms appointments. Not sure if he stayed on when Mel Baroni started but he's now back and dealing with communication to fans.
It was Phil who quickly retracted the false statement that Roland had met with the Target 20k members and it appears he is leading on the fans@ replies hence the coherent and well written emails.
Ironically he is one of the few (only?) premier league appointments made by Roland and Katrien.
From his public linkedin profile
"To borrow a football parlance, my 20 years in communications has been a career of two halves.
In my first decade I worked for some big PR agencies, initially in corporate and consumer tech where I rode and survived the .com boom, before revelling in FMCG publicity. My second decade has been in-house for some of the most watched and dissected sporting brands in the world.
I’m passionate about finding and telling the best stories about a business, and for the last eight years I’ve been doing that for the Premier League as their Head of PR & Publications. For them I have:
• Run complex, multi-stakeholder campaigns.
• Led the crisis communications on storms that have raged every day for weeks.
• Been the chief wordsmith and editor of the Premier League annual report.
• Organised and won awards.
• Got the best out of the Premier League’s multi-faceted CSR programme.
• Strategically promoted the key elements of the business.
• Had responsibility for the international press management of four Barclays Asia Trophy events and the first BPL Live.
• Loved every minute of promoting, defending and providing robust counsel to the talented people of PGMOL, the professional refereeing body.
Prior to the Premier League I was Press Manager at Tottenham Hotspur and Communications Manager at BBC Sport, so I know how sporting and media organisations tick."
I believe that he was the same consultant who advised Meire to shut the **** up after the Dublin interview became public.
Such as heavy hitter won't come cheap and yet while Mel Baroni's arrival was heralded well in advance there hasn't been any mention of Phil and the work he is doing.
Reports suggests he knows what he is doing and his replies back this up.
The issue for me isn't that we recruit consultants or his CV, which is clearly impressive and relevant but that comms to fans is distanced from the real decision makers. Phil writes the polite and well worded responses to fan's emails and says that club is trying to turn things around. However, as a consultant he can not control that, only influence. Katrien may well see his role to placate the locals with platitudes while she carries on in the same old rude, dismissive and counter-productive manner. Meanwhile Tony Cahones wants to ban any protests or protesters (Data Techniques for example, the funeral parade another).
Dorward's experience and skills should be invaluable to the club but I fear that his will be a short term fire fighting role not a strategic influence on any real actions carried out to address the problems.
The other side issue related to Dorward is that he is said to be part of the "Strategy Group". This was the group promised alongside the T20k group but whose remit and membership remains a mystery. One source claims that Roland was told he was meeting with this "strategy group" when he met pre-selected "partners" on his last trip to SE7.
Comments
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We're definitely staying up now.19
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'Communications Manager at BBC Sport'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35921396 - No coincidence then with his contacts. BBC were on it like a flash.2 -
Good appointment but, as you state, all will be undermined by the club management.
He is not a member of the Executive Committee (I assume) so has no power nor real influence ... which is a pity because it looks as though he knows his stuff.4 -
He's been back in the fold pretty much since the moment Mel resigned, I've been told.
His BBC contacts now make sense how quick they have been to pick up on the couple of Club statements in the past few weeks5 -
So no more PR gaffes & drunken rants then?5
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You talking about Roland or AFKA ??addick1965 said:So no more PR gaffes & drunken rants then?
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The career of two halves thing almost made me stop reading (hate that cliche), but really like what he says about referees.
I'll say the same thing about him that I said when Mel came on, if he does his job well, we'll probably only barely notice him. Hopefully it's now clear that any stupid PR decision with this club come straight from the top.0 -
Quite incorrect IMO.SDAddick said:The career of two halves thing almost made me stop reading (hate that cliche), but really like what he says about referees.
I'll say the same thing about him that I said when Mel came on, if he does his job well, we'll probably only barely notice him. Hopefully it's now clear that any stupid PR decision with this club come straight from the top.
If he does well, thanks to the RD shamble statement we will definitely see a difference.0 -
NOT liked or much respected by the London Supporters Trust gang. IF , and for me it's a big if, he is influencing anyone at the BBC, well there are ways to address that.0
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Hang on, he's the one getting the club's one-sided statements out there on the BBC? Sounds like he is more into their reputation protection than any genuine attempts to build bridges with fans.13
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enjoy your 3 months at the the club Phil0
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Not sure who edits the BBC Sport website these days, but a nice mail to Ben Gallop, BBC Sport's radio and digital head (who used to have that role - BBC mails go firstname.surname@bbc.co.uk) might help CARD redress the balance.1
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Crisis comms, innit? All about making things look nice and buying a bit of breathing space for an incompetent regime that keeps shooting itself in the foot.Weegie Addick said:Hang on, he's the one getting the club's one-sided statements out there on the BBC? Sounds like he is more into their reputation protection than any genuine attempts to build bridges with fans.
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I understand that he had a degree of overlap with Mel Baroni, which would make sense.
To what extent he has credibility, CV or not, is the degree to which he is being controlled. I can foresee a number of scenarios where he will simply walk away, unless the money is so good he can't turn it down.
The problems for Philip are tricky. he may simply be a functionary, instructed to tidy up the series of mad messages the club put out, a kind of human spellchecker.
Philip may be on board with the Duchatelet project, and be closely involved with shaping that message in the best possible light, where he suggests ideas, and approaches, tactics and indeed spin in order to dampen down fan angst.
Philip may also be involved in active promotion of the brand. For example advising that Data Techniques ought not to be invited to the sponsors event, but be told by a club employee it is because they are special, that a unique opportunity could be cobbled together just for Data Techniques. At the same time he uses his public relations skills to sell season tickets, and attract a raft of new sponsors.
Philip may have a special brief to engage fans to begin the healing process we hear so much that they want to happen.
Philip may be employed to use his skills to neutralise the messages of the protesters.
In my opinion, in whatever capacity or capacities Philip is working for Charlton Athletic, if he has integrity he will realise that there is nothing he can contribute that will enable Charlton Athletic to return to being a proper football club under this regime, nothing.
The brand under this regime is broken beyond repair, no matter what is on the box, you can't sell soap powder with no soap inside...unless you deliberately cheat and trick people.
For a man that had worked in a high profile capacity in football, he ought to be the first to realise that working for Charlton Athletic means that he isn't working in football any more.5 -
Phil.dorward@cafc.co.uk in case you want to ask him anything directly.1
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"Passionate, Strategic, Loved every minute, Storms that raged...". He may well be a good communicator, but I'll wager that he's not as good at it as he is at Bullshit Bingo.25
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Can he play left back?1
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I wonder how receptive we would be had his LinkedIn profile said some of the quotes it says above but his name was Jean-Pierre Arnoux (or some other typically Franco-Belgian name)Henry Irving said:He's mentioned on another thread but thought it was worth its own thread.
Phil was one of the interim Comms consultants employed during the two year gap between Head of Comms appointments. Not sure if he stayed on when Mel Baroni started but he's now back and dealing with communication to fans.
It was Phil who quickly retracted the false statement that Roland had met with the Target 20k members and it appears he is leading on the fans@ replies hence the coherent and well written emails.
Ironically he is one of the few (only?) premier league appointments made by Roland and Katrien.
From his public linkedin profile
"To borrow a football parlance, my 20 years in communications has been a career of two halves.
In my first decade I worked for some big PR agencies, initially in corporate and consumer tech where I rode and survived the .com boom, before revelling in FMCG publicity. My second decade has been in-house for some of the most watched and dissected sporting brands in the world.
I’m passionate about finding and telling the best stories about a business, and for the last eight years I’ve been doing that for the Premier League as their Head of PR & Publications. For them I have:
• Run complex, multi-stakeholder campaigns.
• Led the crisis communications on storms that have raged every day for weeks.
• Been the chief wordsmith and editor of the Premier League annual report.
• Organised and won awards.
• Got the best out of the Premier League’s multi-faceted CSR programme.
• Strategically promoted the key elements of the business.
• Had responsibility for the international press management of four Barclays Asia Trophy events and the first BPL Live.
• Loved every minute of promoting, defending and providing robust counsel to the talented people of PGMOL, the professional refereeing body.
Prior to the Premier League I was Press Manager at Tottenham Hotspur and Communications Manager at BBC Sport, so I know how sporting and media organisations tick."
I've seen all sorts of comments about peoples LinkedIn (some here and some by the Lumpyheads on Facebook) and it does seem there are double standards.
That said this chap does have some pedigree so I really hope he manages to get the communication sorted...god knows we need it.
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Add his name to the list of the enemy employees.6
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Think he was at the bbc before my time, otherwise I would have met him on several occassions as the art director of Internal comms.Used to do a lot of work with BBC sport, Olympics, World cup, Wimbledon, and when F1 returned to the BBC especially the technology side, such as HD. Worked with the BBC head of sport several times .
Seems to have a decent C/V.1 - Sponsored links:
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How tall is he ?3
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I've just sent him everyone of the emails I've sent to Katrien, should confuse him for a few minutes at leastHenry Irving said:Phil.dorward@cafc.co.uk in case you want to ask him anything directly.
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His LinkedIn profile reads like he is a bullshit merchant "chief wordsmith?" albeit of a better quality than Tone or Daisy.1
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Is this him?
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He's the mouthpiece for the regime. No matter how good he is he's still communicating the message they want communicated in a positive spin towards them. Dressing up and flogging their bullshit in a more palatable form of bullshit in other words.
Ministry of Propaganda and the position is not that of a friend of the supporters who want his paymasters gone logically.
I would rather they strengthened the squad or got a autonomous manager in than focus on appointing more puppets.20 -
I take your point, I guess job number one will be no more bonkers PR releases straight from the owner. You would think that would just go without saying...Dazzler21 said:
Quite incorrect IMO.SDAddick said:The career of two halves thing almost made me stop reading (hate that cliche), but really like what he says about referees.
I'll say the same thing about him that I said when Mel came on, if he does his job well, we'll probably only barely notice him. Hopefully it's now clear that any stupid PR decision with this club come straight from the top.
If he does well, thanks to the RD shamble statement we will definitely see a difference.
Beyond that though, I still think a lot of what he does will be subtle (like the email correction), at least to start. If I were him, I'd say to the regime that the best thing they can do is lay low right now, and then start a charm offensive once all of this "blows over" (note: I don't personally think this will blow over, but things won't always be as raw as they are post "The Statement").
Unlike Mel, he is a consultant who I'm guessing is used to coming in when things are in bad shape. I doubt he'll walk away as easily, as dealing with difficult situations seems to be his job. Already I'm seeing the whole "he's the enemy" and "he's the mouthpiece of the regime" but this is just someone doing their job. At least he's not doing it for oil or tobacco companies who are killing millions or destroying the environment. Boeing, Lockheed, Academi/Xe/Blackwater (you know it's bad when you go through three names in almost as many years), and Northrup Grumman probably pay more, but Roland isn't building weapons or murdering civilians (that we know of). Phil Dorward is just trying to make the leadership at a football club not look like assholes. It's a tall order, but not one that makes him evil.
@Swisdom makes a good point, particularly that you shouldn't judge people too much by their LinkedIn profiles. When I edit mine, it is with a specific audience in mind, and I imagine he is the same. That audience is not the message board of supporters. I know brilliant people with awful LinkedIn profiles, and vice versa. Judging, book, cover, and all that.0 -
His cv is a load of corporate speak bullshit, he is just as much part of the regime as km,tone,riga,fraeye uncle tom cobbley and all.4
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If he is good at his job he will succeed in managing our expectations, promoting the vision of the owners and countering the protest work in the media.
But....he is paid to fight, we aren't. To paraphrase...we'll be here long after he is.0 -
From his Linkedin Profile:
Communications Manager, BBC Sport
BBC
2006 – 2006 (less than a year)London, United Kingdom
• I spent eight months as a contractor at BBC Sport
An eight month gig, ten years ago...let's not get paranoiac here...7 -
Just tried to send an email about the lazy reporting of this and it failed delivery. Did I understand you correctly: gallop.ben@bbc.co.uk ?InspectorSands said:Not sure who edits the BBC Sport website these days, but a nice mail to Ben Gallop, BBC Sport's radio and digital head (who used to have that role - BBC mails go firstname.surname@bbc.co.uk) might help CARD redress the balance.
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