Colin Walkey Communications

Colin Walkey is a highly experienced public relations consultant who set up his own public relations consultancy in Warwick in 1998 after more than 12 years in senior management positions with Rover Group and Land Rover.

A former member of the Land Rover Group Ltd. Board, he was responsible for several years for the development of Land Rover's corporate image as the manufacturer of the world's best four-wheel drive vehicles.

He started his career in journalism on the Cambridge Evening News and later became Municipal Correspondent of the Coventry Evening Telegraph. After entering the public relations profession in the public sector he moved on to become Business Affairs Manager at the then Austin Rover Group Ltd.

Based at Canley, Coventry, he was responsible for all corporate public relations activities including media relations, Government relations, and internal communications for the 40,000-strong workforce.

As well as writing keynote speeches for the chairman, he was responsible for promoting the company's financial performance, its business strategy, and its new computer-based technologies employed in the design, engineering and manufacturing processes.

In 1987 Colin Walkey was appointed to the Land Rover Group Ltd. board as Director of External Affairs. Over the next nine years he was part of the management team that doubled worldwide sales of the famous marque.

He transformed the image of the company from a quirky British manufacturer of agricultural off-road vehicles to the "jewel in the crown" of UK manufacturing industry.

In 1997 he joined the Board of Midlands-based public relations consultancy, Haslimann Taylor, before setting up his own consultancy. Colin Walkey is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association.