At Curzon PR, our commitment is to optimise the art of strategic storytelling and communication for our clients, harnessing innovative technology underpinned by data and best-practice academic and scientific research. We nurture network connections and cultivate trust between organisations and their audiences, ensuring a positive impact.

As a London-based firm of experts with a global outlook, we specialise in providing award-winning strategic communications support to partners across government, corporate, cultural, and charitable sectors, all with the shared goal of creating a better world.

We envision a future of work where technology unlocks global talent pools and enables cross-cultural collaboration. The world is abandoning outdated working methods and embracing innovative work practices such as agile teams and remote working for better social and environmental outcomes.

In an increasingly globalised world with an ever-evolving communications landscape, we exist to navigate our clients strategically, helping them to communicate with their stakeholders effectively to build, promote and protect their brands and reputations for a better world

An environment of openness, kindness and curiosity strengthens working relationships and unlocks creativity, encouraging us to find unique and hidden solutions to communication challenges.

We live and work by our long-held set of core values:

• We work with purpose. We partner with clients who share a common purpose to bring meaning to our work and enable our teams to be fully engaged in creating value for clients and society.
• We believe in the power of diversity. As we face a future of unknown complexity and accelerated change, we build on the strength of our differences to help our clients navigate strategically. Our knowledge networks of experts tap diverse talents across disciplines, cultures and industries to rise to communication challenges.
• The pursuit of excellence and innovation. We harness a continuous feedback culture to support professional growth and build insight. We embrace innovative digital technologies as they continue to disrupt industries to be early adopters at the forefront of paradigm shifts.
• Curiosity keeps us moving forward. We keep forging ahead, exploring new avenues, and trying new things because we’re curious, and curiosity leads us down new paths and helps us discover better ways of working.
• We will treat our clients as we would wish to be treated. We are in the business of relationships, and trust is the ultimate currency.
• We value the professionalism of the PR industry and follow the CIPR’s Code of Conduct, which governs good practice in integrity, honesty, capability, capacity, competence, confidentiality, transparency, and conflicts of interest.

Curzon is committed to adhering to the codes of ethics and professional conduct rules outlined by our industry body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. We are Corporate members, and our colleagues are given memberships as we support them in their CPD with a mandatory component on ethics in PR en route to gaining the Chartered qualification.

Curzon was born out of curiosity and a friendship that developed between the co-founders Farzana Baduel and James Ollerenshaw.

On February 5th, 2007, they met at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall and started working together as volunteers on the Young Director’s Forum at the IOD. James was already a PR veteran and introduced Farzana, who had been running a tax firm, to the world of communications. She was curious, and he was kind. She wanted to learn more about Public Relations, and he was happy to teach her.

A couple of years later, in December 2009, they co-founded Curzon PR and embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure together. More than a decade later, curiosity remains a key value for our team, as we believe in following one’s passion.

We are a Talent First firm. Many workers spend one-third of their life at work. The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime, so we are grateful that our experts have chosen to invest their time and talent in our team.

Our team comprises both the client delivery team and the supporting operations team.

Our delivery teams are based in London and across the UK, while our operations team, responsible for marketing, business development, tech, talent, operations, and finance, is based in the UK, India, Argentina, and Nigeria.

Recruiting and retaining talented individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences is one of our greatest strengths.

Our inclusive culture gives us a competitive edge as our team members feel safe and secure to voice their perspectives confidently.

Scarf Model

Our annual awards celebrate team winners voted by colleagues who demonstrate and live our values of treating others as we wish to be treated, working with a purpose, curiosity, diversity, professionalism, excellence, and innovation. Winners receive a certificate, £250, and a paid day off to celebrate their win.

The only constant in PR is change. Technology is a catalyst for change, particularly as AI poses unique challenges. These are a selection of tools we use in our work:

Tech for collaboration

• Slack, Google Suite, Zoom, Skype, Whats app

Work tools

• Harvest Timesheets, Roxhill media database, Meltwater media monitoring, Hubspot, Bamboo HR, Xero, WordPress for websites, Moz for SEO, Zencastr podcasting, Otter.ai

Generative tools

• Chat-GTP, Grammarly, Canva, Beautiful.ai

Our delivery team works hybrid, and our operations teams work remotely. However, both have opportunities to meet in person to build connections, exchange ideas, and gain valuable business insights.

• Annually, our teams convene at our March Summit, Connecting Worlds, in London. This event brings together delivery and operations teams for two days of in-person meetings, masterclasses, mental health workshops, and review sessions.
• Our delivery teams based in London and across the UK meet with clients or colleagues at least once a month. The meetings are usually in London and often at the Clubhouse in St. James’ Square.
• For the operations teams, who work mostly remotely,  in addition to the March summit in London, if budget permits, we often meet again in person during October at a different location worldwide.

To promote a culture of inclusivity, engagement and open communication, we have established various communication channels:

• Monthly town hall: This is a once-a-month meeting on the second Monday of the month when the whole team convenes and shares business updates.
• Monthly wellbeing check-ins: The talent team conducts regular 1-on-1 check-ins with each team member to provide support, address if there are any concerns, and check on colleagues’ well-being.
• Monthly talent newsletters: The newsletter rounds up the news from the past month, focusing on talent, clients, and giving-back initiatives.
• General Slack channel: We use the General Slack channel to communicate with each other on an ad-hoc basis, from wishing colleagues birthdays to celebrating client wins.

We are a fast-paced, high-performance culture, and the ability to accept constructive feedback is critical to our success. Regular feedback helps us to identify any performance gaps and reinforce positive behaviours. 

• Feedback throughout the year: We acknowledge the value of a safe and confidential space for expressing honest opinions and suggestions for improvement. Thus, the “Help Make Curzon PR Better” is rolled out regularly along with other Talent pulse checks to ensure we do our best to listen and actively improve the talent experience. 
• Individual feedback: We also run through Bamboo HR feedback for each team member twice a year, which comprises feedback on performance from your direct line manager and self-reflective feedback on your own performance. 
• Anonymous CEO feedback: Twice a year, we run CEO feedback surveys to support her journey in delivering for Curzon and bridging any authenticity gaps in being a Talent First team.

In line with our value of curiosity, we commit £1,000 per person for L&D coupled with eight paid days for internal learning and four paid days for external learning per year.

Our talent team supports your career growth with the following initiatives:

• Half-yearly performance assessment: The talent team co-develops an assessment based on past performance to focus regularly on achievements and skill gaps to be addressed.

• Quarterly feedback from managers and peers: We have a quarterly feedback initiative run by Bamboo HR that supports every team member in reflecting on the feedback from colleagues and their line manager.

• Learning development plans: We create bespoke learning development plans aligned with the CIPR Capability Framework and Career Development Roadmap, clearly listing skills that need to be mastered for the current role and the additional skills that will unlock the next promotion.
• In-house learning opportunities: Every Thursday, our experts deliver a learning lecture followed by a team discussion. We encourage all members to deliver a lecture to hone their presentation skills.
• Our trusted learning partners are the CIPR, Socially Mobile, PRmoment, PRovoke Media and PRWeek. We seek opportunities for our team to engage with these four industry leaders through attending courses, webinars, workshops, conferences and networking events.

• Each team member gets a Learning credit of £1,000 for the calendar year, with a mandatory membership fee with the CIPR. We encourage colleagues to complete annual CPD cycles and work towards a professional qualification, such as the Chartered PR Practitioner with the CIPR.

We dedicate 12 paid days a year to learning and development, 8 of which are delivered in-house and 4 days are for external learning, such as attending conferences or courses.

At Curzon, we hold our team in the highest regard and recognise them as our most valuable asset. Our mission is to ensure that every colleague is justly rewarded for their dedication and contributions to Curzon’s success.

Through our comprehensive recognition and rewards program, we aim to celebrate our teams’s contributions to success and demonstrate our values.

• We offer our colleagues fair and transparent annual remuneration equivalent to their experience and roles. We use salary guides from recruitment company specialists such as Reuben-Sinclair and Hansons and industry bodies such as the CIPR.
• We offer an annual salary review to our colleagues on their work anniversary, reviewing factors such as inflation and the cost of living.
• We offer a performance bonus linked to meeting the firm’s financial performance in revenue and profit targets. The performance bonus aims to reward our team members for performing above and beyond normal role expectations and targets during a year when the company has met its financial targets.
• A colleague can earn a sales bonus of 10% of the net fee for referring a lead to the business development team, which converts. The bonus is paid in year one.
• We also offer a £ 1,000 referral bonus for referring a potential candidate to the talent team who is hired. Upon reaching a significant point in the hiring process, which includes the referral joining, successfully completing their probation, and marking their first work anniversary, the referee is paid a portion of a £1,000 bonus.
• A team member who completes the first five years at Curzon enjoys a loyalty bonus as a token of their long-term commitment and dedication. The bonus is in the form of 5 months of paid leave or a bonus payment of 5 months of their standard salary. In addition, one paid leave is added for completing each additional year of service on their work anniversary, up to a maximum of 5 additional loyalty paid leaves per year for colleagues working over 5 years.
• In recognition of demonstrating Curzon values,  we run annual talent awards in March. The six winners receive £250 and one paid day off to celebrate their win.
• We offer our colleagues a standard 28 days of annual leave, including standard paid and bank holidays. In addition, our colleagues enjoy extra paid leave on their birthdays, and one leave is added for completing one additional year of service on their work anniversary up to a maximum of 5 years. So, a Curzon colleague who has been with the team for five years will receive 28+1 + 5 days = 32 days. Additional leave includes one paid leave for voluntary work, 4 paid leave for external learning, 5 paid leave for bereavement and 6 paid leave for sickness.
• We carefully consider all requests for flexible working hours and do our utmost to support colleagues while being mindful of the needs of our clients, colleagues, and the company.

In our high-performance and fast-paced environment, well-being is essential to our culture and success.

Our wellbeing initiatives include

• The talent team conducts a “Quarterly Mental Wellbeing Workshop” for all colleagues in London and globally.
• Bi-monthly breathwork sessions are conducted online by an expert yoga and breathwork practitioner.
• A paid subscription to meditation apps such as Headspace, Calm or Waking Up.
• We have subscribed to Wow’s Friend in Need service for our global colleagues. This service offers counselling on various topics, including mental health and relationships. The WOW helpline is run by Curzon’s accountants.

We believe in the triple bottom line – people, profits and the planet.

As a remote team, we embrace sustainability by reducing the environmental impact of unnecessary travel and permanent offices.

We recognise that unnecessary travel can be detrimental not only to our planet but also to the well-being of our staff as travel time takes away their personal time. By championing remote work, we aim to strike a balance between operational efficiency and ecological responsibility. When we do meet in person, it is purposeful and intentional.

Our sustainability initiatives include:

• Encouraging digital collaboration and communication tools to reduce the need for physical travel, thereby lowering our carbon emissions.
• Providing resources and training to our staff to foster an environmentally conscious workplace culture, even when working remotely.
• Learning more as a team about ESG and SDGs to champion sustainability to our clients through our work as well on our own blog and communication channels.
• Regularly assessing and implementing green practices in all areas of our operations, including energy-efficient technology and sustainable resource management.
• Partnering with environmentally responsible suppliers and encouraging our team to make eco-friendly choices in their personal and professional lives.

Our commitment to giving back stems from our purpose to work for a better world and treat others as we wish to be treated. 

We make donations and deliver pro bono and low-bono campaigns throughout the year to support charities and social enterprises. While we focus on supporting causes in the PR industry and journalism, we have also supported causes ranging from education to social mobility, mental health, child protection, inter-faith, and economic empowerment of women and culture.

We are a founding donor of Socially Mobile, a not-for-profit PR school for communications professionals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Socially Mobile delivers training to those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and underrepresented and underserved groups, including black, Asian, and ethnic minority practitioners, women returners, and people with disabilities.

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