The 800 week-long month of January crawls to a close today. I’ve been glad of its dark days, which have been perfect for focusing our leadership team’s minds on how we’re going to make 2018 a great year for working for, and with Mantis. I’m always proud to reflect on how we respond to the challenges of running a communications business, and this month we’ve made some exciting decisions.

Promotion for Bryony Cox

I’ve spoken about Bryony before (you might recall her anniversary post). Bryony has been promoted this month to Senior Account Manager. Her talent is outstanding and, if you’re a client of ours, you’ll know her commitment to your goals. If I want a straight answer, I go to Bryony. If I want a completely truthful opinion on whether the media will like an angle, she’s my go to.

Bryony now has her own portfolio of clients and a team to support her on each one. She’s a natural manager who deserves our commitment to her professional growth and I can’t wait to see what 2018 brings for her. Congratulations, B!

Appointment of Lilian Smit

As Client Services Director, one of my personal objectives for the business is developing a wider, larger team of account servicers with deep experience of stakeholder influence work. We’re not a press office function firm now, it’s not what our clients want, they need much more. Mantis provides its clients with a perfect mixture of direct influence of individuals and organisations and wider engagement through traditional and non-traditional media.

So we are over the moon to have a new starter in Lilian Smit, who joined us this month. Between you and me, have you ever interviewed someone and been so excited about the prospect of working with them that you kind of want to follow them home and convince them of how cool you are? Lilian is that person. I can’t wait for her to meet her clients. She’s a trained journalist who joined the dark side straight into technology PR. She’s so sharp and interesting and after two days, I feel like I’ve worked with her for the whole 800 weeks of January.

The search for the missing crouton in the soup

I know you’re out there, so show yourself! Mantis is currently recruiting for another SAE/AM level team member. You can view the details here, or drop me a line directly at eleanorgiles@mantispr.co.uk