Howell James

The current Chair of The Arts Foundation, James brings top-level experience of both government and regulatory affairs to Radiocentre. In the 1980s he was a Special Adviser on employment and trade and went on to serve as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister between 1994 and 1997. He was appointed as the government’s first Permanent Secretary for Communications in 2004, overseeing Whitehall’s press, advertising and marketing including the Central Office of Information (COI). Howell is a member of The Marketing Group of Great Britain and a fellow of The Chartered Institute of Public Relations. James worked in commercial radio early in his career as Head of Promotions at Capital Radio in the late 1970s, and was later Director of Corporate Affairs at the BBC between 1987 and 1992. In 1997 James was a founding partner and director of strategic consultancy Brown Lloyd James, and later spent four years at Barclays as Director and then Vice Chairman of Corporate Affairs. After two years in the role of Global Head of Corporate Communications at auction house Christie’s, he became Chief Executive of Quiller in 2014.