Ross Cathcart
Director, FirstWord Media
Public Relations expert Ross Cathcart’s experience stretches across multiple sectors and categories including entertainment, retailing, travel and tourism, mobile phones, logistics, and online gaming, working for large companies such as Siemens, Shell, Mobil 1, Stella Artois, Pokerstars, TNT and Visit London.
Prior to joining FirstWord he was a senior director at Ogilvy Public Relations and was deputy managing director at London creative shop Jackie Cooper PR (via parent agency Edelman). Before Edelman Ross spent nine years with Weber Shandwick mostly working on international projects. At the time of his departure, he was running the agency’s relationship with ExxonMobil focusing on the pan-European activation of Mobil 1’s sponsorship of the McLaren F1 team.
Ross began his career writing for newspapers in Scotland then broke into PR with small Scottish outfit Budge Newton working for the Health Education Board for Scotland.
Maninder Gill
Partner, Simons, Muirhead & Burton
Lawyer Maninder Gill brings his experience in intellectual property and retail issues including franchising, branding and reputation management to Belle About Town.
He was previously the Legal Director of the international luxury retailer Harvey Nichols and Group Secretary and Legal Director at Northern and Shell plc/Express Newspapers, the publishing and broadcasting group and is experienced in developing strategies to deal with the media.
Maninder has appeared on television and radio on numerous occasions and was ranked as a leading in-house lawyer by ‘The Legal 500’ and was described in previous editions of ‘Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession’ as having a reputation for “fighting tooth and nail”. He has also been named in the Lawyer Magazine’s Hot 100 lawyers list and was on The Times newspaper’s Panel of Experts.
Maninder is a visiting lecturer at The European Business School in London where he speaks on Intellectual Property Law on the Masters degree course in Luxury Brand Management. He also sits on the Board of Yellow Earth, the East Asian theatre company which uses performing traditions of east and west to celebrate the meeting of cultures and speaks regularly at conferences on franchising and retail issues.
Don Perretta
TV Producer, Director & Writer
Don Perretta has more than 25 years experience in the media industry as an award-winning writer, producer and director. Don started out as a journalist in the early 80s, cutting his teeth writing cover features for Time Out (London).
He switched to TV in the early 90s, producing thousands of hours of programming for UK networks and for international distribution, mainly in the areas of entertainment, factual entertainment, sport and documentaries.
Don has had a parallel career as a media consultant, advising on many start-ups and speaking at conferences, conducting research and assisting young enterpreneurs to develop their ideas. He is a specialist in large, complex and live/fast turnaround projects in testing conditions on various delivery platforms. He has also served on judging panels at BAFTA and RTS.
