Paul Burden

Paul Burden has a unique experience of the problems of coporate communication. After a long career with the BBC, culminating in a ten year stint as presenter of the BBC 1 Business Breakfast show, he became Director of Communications at the John Lewis Partnership. He thus has a perspective from both sides of the media divide.

He has recently retired from the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned business and, according to two recent independent surveys, overwhelmingly the UK's favourite retailer.

It was his time at the BBC that brought him to the attention of the mainstream business audience. In all, he worked for thirty years for BBC News and Current Affairs, around half that time was focussed on business and financial issues. Prior to moving to Business Breakfast in 1989, he reported for the Money Programme.

His travels during his reporting career took him to most corners of the globe, including the US, South Africa, the former USSR and much of south and east Asia (including an assignment in 1975 to cover the end of the Indo-China conflict). He spent many weeks covering the conflict in Northern Ireland.

During his time in the job, the company saw a huge growth in its PR operations as it moved to raise its profile in line with a major expansion of the activities of the two divisions.

Aside from his career at the BBC and at JLP, Burden has extensive freelance experience of working on the delivery of corporate messages as a media trainer and as a conference facilitator / presenter.

He has worked with companies in a wide range of sectors and also with a large number of trade associations and other representative organisations and with government departments, notably the DTI for whom he presented a series of major national events, to mark the Department's annual Innovation initiative.

Paul also chairs conferences and seminars and is a highly skilled conference facilitator and after dinner speaker. He has a wealth of experience hosting events and award ceremonies, both at home and abroad.