Our Team

Simon established Champollion Digital in 2011 to offer our clients online the same standards of professionalism, creativity and dedication that our sister agency Champollion has been providing offline since 2005. His vast campaigning, media and public affairs experience has forged a fully integrated PR service using the latest digital techniques.

Simon began campaigning online more than a decade ago as Chief Executive of Britain in Europe, a business-led coalition launched in 1999 by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and supported by prominent Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. He has also been the Social Affairs and Employment Correspondents of the Financial Times, a political reporter for the BBC and a producer at LWT.

Branislava is a digital communications professional with extensive experience in the non-for-profit sector. She started her career as a journalist in her native Serbia and then at the BBC World Service in London.

During over 10 years of working in digital communications in the UK charity sector, Branislava developed and implemented digital strategies for two of the largest international development organisations - Save the Children UK and Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) - as well as for the global animal welfare charity World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). She led on digital campaigning initiatives both for individual organisations and coalitions such as Make Poverty History in 2005 and Put People First in 2009.

Her focus is the development of digital engagement strategy and products in order to increase brand visibility and deliver excellent engagement rates across campaigning, social media and fundraising.

David has more than 18 years of experience in digital marketing and communications since co-founding one of the first wave internet marketing agencies in 1994. Using his vast skill set, David’s focus is on helping the voluntary sector and others who may lack huge resources to access the kind of quality digital support that corporates take for granted.

David has worked with clients including Youth Support Services, Network for Africa and Orchid Project to support them in understanding the benefit of digital to their organisation, carefully designing affordable strategies to meet their current and future needs. With a background in production, he also works on the delivery of projects, working closely with our clients, internal teams and external partners to ensure successful delivery.

In his career David has worked for clients of all sizes across all sectors including technology giants such as Intel, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, as well as campaigning charities Amnesty International, Oxfam and the World Wildlife Fund.

Scott has over a decade of experience and credibility as a digital communicator. He has recently overseen the construction and launch of a YouTube channel for Amnesty International and helped promote the online phenomenon Popbitch.

He began his digital career at Google in the very early days of its development, later working on the launch of YouTube. He has worked with AOL, Scoot, FT.com and upmystreet.com, as well as helping with the launch of the digital arm of a global corporate communications firm, where his clients included lastminute.com, Barcardi, Britvic, Electronic Arts, Sony Playstation, Vodafone and Evian.

Scott has a deep understanding of all of the key disciplines involved with campaigning on the internet, with a strong emphasis on using data/insight and analytics to maximise creativity and impact.

Ben manages social media campaigns and digital press office activity for a range of clients, including for the disability charity Scope and on our award-winning work with the International Consortium of British Pensioners.

As an experienced graphic and web designer, Ben also acts as Champollion Digital’s lead ‘user interface designer’; working on all of our web development projects to translate our clients’ real-world objectives into innovative technical and creative approaches that deliver results. Highlights have included a timeline-style fundraising website, an animated video introduction to frozen pensions, and an infographic on the pressures faced by families with disabled children.

Ben joined the team shortly after completing a degree in History and Politics at Oxford University. Previously, Ben worked in digital communications roles for third-sector organisations including at the National Trust, Oxfam and the UK Youth Climate Coalition, serving on the national committee of student campaigning organisation People and Planet and as part of Ed Miliband’s successful bid for the Labour Party leadership.

Ben’s speciality as a graduate consultant lies in social media and digital press office delivery. He has worked with some of the web’s most respected outlets to achieve coverage for our clients, and enjoys particularly strong relationships with bloggers in sectors including men’s lifestyle outlets and politically-influential mummy bloggers.

Before joining Champollion Digital, Ben gained a grounding in digital communications and project management, skills which he continues to develop as part of our graduate training programme.

He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a degree in Persian. It was a formative environment that developed his interest in global current affairs, international development and the charity sector.

Having two autistic brothers, disability issues are of particular interest. Given his academic background he also keenly follows current affairs in the Middle East and North and Sub-Sarahan Africa.

As a user experience designer on the Champollion Digital team, Ian works to translate our clients’ objectives into websites and projects that create a lasting impact. He works to support senior members of the team in planning and executing many of our major projects for clients.

Prior to joining Champollion Digital, Ian worked as a freelance web developer, was a campaigns assistant at the Global Poverty Project, and was a major part of the national Equal Love campaign. He uses his campaigns, media, and technical experience from these roles to deliver excellent results for our clients.

Kim Catcheside joined Champollion from the BBC, where she was the education and social policy correspondent for network radio and television since 1997.

Kim is a familiar voice to devotees of Radio 4 as a regular contributor to the award winning “Today” programme. As well as being an experienced journalist and broadcaster, Kim is an expert in UK education and social policy, respected by programme editors and policy makers alike.

Before becoming education and social policy correspondent Kim spent more than ten years as a political correspondent on television and radio for the BBC and ITN. For instance, she was a reporter on the BBC’s flagship political current affairs TV programme “On the Record”, which was renowned for its insider knowledge of Westminster.

Kim is also a trustee for the Charity Finance Director’s Group which is dedicated to improving the way that charities are managed.

Honda, Airbus, Morrisons, Accenture and Mothercare are just some of the renowned companies Estelle has advised on their public affairs strategies. She has led campaigns on climate change, women in science and engineering, economic regeneration, and the future of UK manufacturing. Estelle has also counselled several foreign governments on their international communications strategy.

After a brief flirtation with a career in law, Estelle was Head of Business Liaison at Britain in Europe, a cross-party, pro-European coalition which was one of the most high profile campaigns of the Blair era. She then joined the UK’s largest public relations group where she rose to become a Director and ran an award-winning political communication team.

Estelle joined Champollion to become a shareholder and to bring her skills, experience and networks to our entrepreneurial and values-led environment. As well as providing strategic leadership to clients and colleagues, Estelle develops our growth and new business strategy, and brings to our team and our clients the disciplines of delivering complex campaigns across multiple audiences in different countries.

Estelle has lived, studied and worked in the USA and in France. She is a Trustee of Independent Age, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Laura joined Champollion during the very early days of the company. As a Director, she now plays a major role in the growth and expansion of the business across the whole Champollion Group.

Previously a senior broadcast journalist in news and current affairs, Laura has produced flagship programmes like BBC1’s Question Time, Dispatches and 30 Minutes for Channel 4. Before her career in the media, Laura was the Deputy Press Secretary to former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, for whom she was also the official press officer during his successful party leadership campaign in 1999.

An experienced communications professional, Laura manages several of our largest public policy clients, and is responsible for strategic thinking and managing our team to ensure high class delivery across all media disciplines. As part of a unique scheme that is offered to all staff at Champollion, Laura enjoyed a sabbatical in Belize, taking part in a marine conservation programme on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

Elly is responsible for the smooth running of the office and all its occupants. She marshals our back-office operations, manages our suppliers, oversees our IT and monitors our HR. She also ensures that our company’s policies and procedures are above and beyond the minimum standards demanded by the trade associations of which we are proud to be members: the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) and the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA).

Elly is a qualified youth worker, who graduated from the George Williams YMCA College in 2008 and has worked for nearly ten years on youth and community issues, both in the public and third sector. Her more recent roles have involved bid writing and strategic development of programmes.

Kathy is responsible for keeping the day-to-day finances of Champollion running smoothly. This is a task she thoroughly enjoys (sad but true).

She is already a qualified bookkeeper, but is also currently studying for an accountancy qualification.

Prior to working at Champollion she spent twelve years working full-time as a bookkeeper in a variety of SME businesses.