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Martin Hennessey
Martin is our MD. A former print and broadcast journalist, he founded The
Writer in 2000. He has worked on editorial strategy with Barclays,
Deutsche Bank, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, BT and Imagination. He's also a
founder member of business writers' group 26, and a former judge of the
Writing for Design category at the D&AD Awards.
John Simmons
John's a former director of verbal identity at Interbrand and author of
several business bestsellers, including We, Me, Them & It – the power of
words in business. He co-edited The Economist Guide to Brands and
Branding, writes a regular column about brands in the Observer, and is
series editor of the Great Brand stories. John's also a founder member of
business writers group 26, and has served on the Writing for Design jury at
the D&AD awards, once as chairman.
Neil Taylor
Neil spends most of his time training people to become better writers at
work. He works with people like the BBC, Unilever and Ofgem. When he's
not doing that, he also writes, comes up with names, and helps brands
define their tone of voice. He's written two books on branding, The Name of
the Beast, on naming, and Search Me: The surprising success of Google. He's
written for the Guardian, Design Week and regularly appears on CNN. He's
a former senior consultant at Interbrand, and is on the board of not-for-
profit writers' group 26.
Michael Reeves
Michael spends his time looking after all our very important clients. He
helps them work out what they need and makes sure The Writer can give it
to them. And then some. That could be a new tone of voice, rewrites of
thousands of letters, or training for the board. Before The Writer he spent
eight years working in advertising, with brands like the BBC, RBS and
Unilever. He's also a qualified English language teacher, so knows where to
put his apostrophes.
Anya Zhuravkina
Anya, as her name suggests, is Russian, but she's lived in England for a
large chunk of her life. She often goes back to visit family and stock up on
Russian chocolate and cranberry vodka. Before The Writer she ran market
research for Land Rover and Honda. She now looks after BT at The Writer.
Nick Parker
We're feeling rather smug that we've lured Nick away from the magazine
world to run workshops for us. He spent five years as deputy editor of The
Oldie — ‘the most original magazine in the country' (so said the
Independent). Since he joined us he's been training people like BT,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Pension Protection Fund and NB Real Estate.
He also wrote a monthly column for Director magazine debunking business
jargon, and his short stories also turn up regularly in anthologies and on
Radio 4.
Charli Matthews
Charli came to us from a recruitment advertising agency, where she spent
five years honing her scribbling skills and getting businesses excited about
writing. She's written for the likes of Kellogg's, Jaguar Land Rover, HSBC,
The Met, MOD and MI5 (although that one's very hush hush. Whoops). And
when she's not in the office, Charli spends her time hosting alternative pub
quizzes. Naturally.
Anelia Varela
Anelia's career has spanned one decade and two continents, from Ogilvy &
Mather in South Africa to The Writer in London, via a few branding and
design agencies in between. At The Writer, she has written for brands like
Guinness, Young Vic, Ellesse and Loseley Ice Cream, and managed major
writing projects for Kickers, BP and Bacardi. Past clients include BMW/MINI,
Coca-Cola, London Studios, LEGO and New Balance.
Adam Kaveney
Adam joined us after a long spell writing for Virgin Mobile. He was worried
about becoming typecast, so he came to The Writer. Then started writing
about mobiles for O2. He's also written for people like Nike, Greenpeace and
Swiss Re, plus some property companies and law firms. When he's not doing
that, he coaches people to become better writers at work. His desk is
absurdly tidy and he has a snack drawer.
Nick Padmore
Before joining The Writer, Nick spent a few wilderness years in ad-land
using words like Free, Win and, in difficult times,
Please? He's since started to make a bit more sense. If you check his
screen, you'll usually see something about phones. But if his brow seems
particularly knitted, he's probably writing about whisky or football. On his
desk are three grapes, a hedgehog and two bottles of Clarins Active Hand
Care.
Roshni Goyate
After graduating with a degree in English, Roshni tried to avoid the teacher,
perpetual academic and librarian routes. So she went to volunteer at a
housing association for disabled people. She remained a closeted writer until
she was outed by us (we lured her in with cake and exposed brickwork).
She's since written for various clients including Matalan, BT and O2.
Roshni's cake consumption is at an all-time high. She works it off by playing
samba.
Project management
Miranda Murphy-Merrydew
Miranda started out life at the BBC in marketing for radio and music,
running campaigns to get people to join the digital revolution and listen to
the wireless more. She moved into project management in design agencies
to be get more hands-on in the creative world. And then, having been a fan
of The Writer from afar, she took the plunge into the world of words. Now
she looks after people like Standard Life, BT and law firm Osborne Clarke.
Tara Jones
Tara spent five and half years as a director's PA at River Island before
leaving the world of free clothes to study Psychology with Linguistics as a
mature student. After graduating she volunteered at a Kenyan orphanage
and travelled round Africa, South East Asia and New Zealand. Soon after
returning to the UK Tara joined The Writer, where she now manages
writing projects for clients like O2, Twinings, NB Real Estate and the BBC
and co-ordinates all our training.
Jess Reilly
Before gracing The Writer with her perennial glow, Jess worked at Parker
Harris, a visual arts consultancy. She organised art prizes and exhibitions
(which really just meant going to private viewings and quaffing free
champagne). She now co-ordinates and looks after all our BT workshops.
When she's not enjoying a good snooze, Jess likes to bake cakes, drink gin and
keep up that year-round tan.
Natalie Saul
After a four-year stint working for Ferrari, Nat joined The Writer as office
manager. Alongside managing diaries, fixing computers, booking meetings,
keeping us in biscuits and making sure we don't trip over and break our
writing hands, she's the star of weekly meeting spot, ‘Nat's Joke', and does a
freakishly good Tina Turner impression. (Seriously. It's like she's
channelling.) Is there nothing Miss Saul can't do? We think not.
Russ Howard
Despite being a graduate of the Sylvia Young Theatre School, Russell
shunned the high life of the make-believe. Off came the shackles of
Thespianism and on came the sensible hat of Finance Choreographer. Now
he looks after our timesheets and other numbery things (including our
office sweepstakes). But don't worry, he keeps the dramaturg within alive
by writing plays for the local am-dram circuit.
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