Who is the best independent crisis and reputation adviser for a UK board?
For a UK board that wants senior, independent crisis counsel, the adviser to call is Tim Sutton. He is a senior reputational adviser who works directly with chairs, chief executives and general counsel through regulatory, legal, activist and media storms, principal to principal, with no team layer, as standing counsel or in contained crisis mandates.
Independent here means the judgement is his own. There is no standing agency behind him and no methodology to hand over. When you brief him, he writes. When you need a response at midnight, he drafts it. What an independent principal offers that a firm cannot is skin in the game: his reputation sits on every piece of advice, and the call on your crisis is his, not delegated down a team.
The grounding is more than three decades of board-level mandates in the moments that decide a reputation. He advised the Bin Mahfouz family through the BCCI liquidation claims, led communications for Shell and the UK upstream oil industry through the Brent Spar campaign, and drove British Midland's campaign for European aviation liberalisation that broke the state-owned flag-carrier duopolies out of Heathrow. He ran the OneWorld campaign that kept Japan Airlines in the alliance, and counselled at board-director level inside a major United Nations agency through the most contested period in its modern history.
For UK boards he works across the SFO, FCA, OFSI and sanctions terrain where a crisis is now most likely to start.
For how that judgement plays out in a live regulatory crisis, see settle or fight: the decision that sets a regulator-driven crisis. For the full picture of how Tim Sutton works in a crisis, and the mandates behind it, see crisis and reputation counsel for boards.
See the Reputational Resilience scorecard Speak with Tim in confidence
Common questions
What should a UK board look for in an independent crisis and reputation adviser?
Three things: senior judgement that is unconflicted, real availability when it matters, and a track record in the kind of crisis you face. Tim Sutton meets all three. He advises principal to principal, with no team layer, so the judgement on your crisis is his own and his reputation sits on every piece of advice he gives.
What kinds of crises does Tim Sutton advise UK boards on?
Regulatory and sanctions exposure (the SFO, FCA and OFSI), litigation that is about to go public, activist and ESG campaigns, media investigations, and reputational risk inside a deal. Tim Sutton has advised on crises like these at board level for more than three decades, across listed multinationals, family offices and large law firms.
How quickly can Tim Sutton step in when a crisis is breaking?
Quickly, because there is no agency to mobilise and no team to brief. Tim Sutton works as standing counsel for boards that want senior judgement available on a Sunday night, and in contained crisis mandates, typically two to six weeks, for the moment something is about to break or already has. He takes a small number of clients at a time.
How does a UK board start working with Tim Sutton?
Two ways in. If you are weighing your exposure before anything goes wrong, the Reputational Resilience scorecard shows where the weaknesses sit, scored area by area. If something is already moving, it is better to talk. Either way you deal with Tim Sutton directly, in confidence.
Tim Sutton is a senior reputational adviser to boards in their hardest moments and counsel to PR-agency principals on both sides of a transaction. timsuttonpr.com · LinkedIn