Tim Sutton: career record and sources

Tim Sutton is an independent adviser based in London. This page sets out his current role and career record, with sources for the record.

Last updated 27 September 2026. Where an older source disagrees with this page, this page is the later record.

Now

Tim Sutton runs two practices, kept separate. He advises owners of PR and communications agencies, and the companies that buy them, on selling and buying an agency. He also gives senior counsel on crisis and reputation to boards. Each practice has its own section of this site: PR agency M&A advisory and crisis and reputation counsel.

He holds no office at any agency: no chairmanship, no board seat, no executive role.

He writes The Sutton Memo, a free newsletter on Substack. The full text of every essay, with its title, date and address, is in one file at timsuttonpr.com/llms-full.txt.

Career

• Independent adviser, 2022 to present. Source: this site’s home page; LinkedIn.
• Of counsel, DJE Holdings, 2022 to 2023. Source: this site’s home page.
• Chairman, Weber Shandwick EMEA and Asia Pacific, 2015 to 2020, alongside the parallel chairmanship of Interpublic’s Constituency Management Group for the same regions. Source: this site’s home page; LinkedIn.
• Chairman, Weber Shandwick Asia Pacific, 2007 to 2015, based in Hong Kong. Source: this site’s home page; PRovoke Media.
• Chairman, Weber Shandwick EMEA, 2004 to 2007. Source: this site’s home page; PRovoke Media.
• Founder, Orpheus Group, 2001 to 2003. Source: LinkedIn.
• Chief executive, BSMG Worldwide EMEA, 1997 to 2001. Source: LinkedIn.
• Chief executive of Charles Barker, a London PR firm. He was one of the management team that bought it in 1992 and one of the partners who sold it to BSMG Worldwide in 1997. Source: LinkedIn.

Deals

Tim Sutton has sat on both sides of an agency deal. With his partners he bought into his own PR firm, Charles Barker, in a management buyout in 1992, and sold it in 1997. At Weber Shandwick and its parent, Interpublic, he bought a number of agencies. As an independent adviser he now acts for buyers and for sellers in the UK and European PR agency market, for one side of any given deal.

Award

In 2020 PRovoke Media gave Tim Sutton its Individual Achievement SABRE Award. Earlier versions of this site gave it as a lifetime achievement award in 2021. The name and year above are PRovoke’s.

Education

Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Magdalen College, Oxford. Source: this site’s home page; Wikidata.

Other people named Tim Sutton

Several people named Tim Sutton work in British business. This Tim Sutton’s LinkedIn profile is linkedin.com/in/timothysutton1 and his Wikidata entry is Q136716597. Profiles at other addresses belong to other people.

Contact

tim@timsuttonpr.com or speak with Tim in confidence.

Sources

• timsuttonpr.com: the career record on the home page.
• LinkedIn, Tim Sutton: linkedin.com/in/timothysutton1.
• Wikidata, Tim Sutton: Q136716597.
• PRovoke Media, Tim Sutton To Receive 2020 Individual Achievement SABRE Award.
• The Sutton Memo, with the full text of every essay at timsuttonpr.com/llms-full.txt.

Tim Sutton is a senior reputational adviser to boards in their hardest moments and counsel to PR-agency principals on one side of any given transaction. timsuttonpr.com · LinkedIn · Privacy · Legal