Contact Us

Murphy Michael

CEO
Telephone: +44 20 7932 1841
michael.murphy@grayling.com

Michael Murphy is CEO of Grayling. Prior to this role Michael was CEO of Trimedia International which merged with Mmd and Grayling to create the Grayling of today. Under his leadership, Trimedia was named Best European Agency at the European Excellence Awards 2008 and Best Multicountry Agency to Work For 2008 by the Holmes World Report.

With a career spanning over 30 years, Michael has considerable experience in handling global communications programmes in most parts of the world.

In 1993, Michael Murphy was appointed Head of Shandwick’s Hong Kong Office and, the following year, took over as Chief Executive of Shandwick’s Asian operations. He was later appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Shandwick Europe and then Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Shandwick International, with responsibility for Europe and Asia Pacific.

Michael was working for The Hatch Group, a small €6M UK PR company, when it was acquired by Huntsworth plc in 2003. The following year he led Huntsworth’s acquisition of Trimedia, kick-starting the fastest ever growth story in European PR.

Michael also chaired a joint study between the UK Government and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) into the future of the UK PR sector.

Acheson-Gray James

Managing Director, International
Telephone: +44 7904 649 125
james.achesongray@grayling.com

James is Managing Director - International. He joined Grayling in London 15 years ago. He then moved to Asia to establish Grayling’s Asian businesses. James returned to London in 2008 as Managing Director of the UK PR business before taking on the new role as Managing Director – International.

A consumer, corporate and issues management Public Relations specialist, James has handled a wide range of remits and pan-regional activity on behalf of many of the group’s largest clients including TNT, British Airways, Johnnie Walker and Rolls-Royce.

James has an honours degree from Durham University. He is married with four children and enjoys playing tennis and golf.

Yardley Dan

CFO
Telephone: +44 20 7 952 7935
dan.yardley@grayling.com

Dan is a Chartered Accountant who began his career with Deloitte in London. During his 4 years at Deloitte he progressed to the role of manager in the Financial Services audit group working on clients such as The Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley, Lazard, Marsh and Abbey.

From Deloitte he moved on to Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltd, a Global Human Resource consultancy with revenues in Europe of $800m. Working as a Senior Financial Analyst in the European Head Quarters based in London, he had specific responsibility for Northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Netherlands – with total revenues of approx $150m) as well as working with all 19 markets in Continental Europe.

Dan moved to Trimedia International in July 2006 as International Financial Controller based in London, becoming Group CFO in January 2007. Following the merger between Trimedia, Grayling and Mmd, Dan was appointed CFO of the Grayling group in December 2009.