Creative England brings in Paul Smith as head of comms

Smith will take up the post on 10 April, having previously worked at the Producers' Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT).

He will lead Creative England’s communications strategy as it moves towards providing a more joined-up service to the gaming and digital sector, as well as to film and television.

Smith has spent the past 20 years working in communications, largely within the creative industries.

His career includes the head of communications role at PACT, where he managed an overhaul of the trade body's website, and built up its profile and coverage in national and trade media.

He was also head of press for the Edinburgh International Film Festival and worked for Channel Four for six years, where he managed the corporate communications for the documentary, arts and independent film and video output.

Creative England was launched in October, with the initial aim of creating an infrastructure for film in the English regions. It will also be working to support creative and digital SMEs.

Caroline Norbury, Creative England’s chief executive, said: 'While Creative England has already achieved a great deal in the six short months we’ve been around, we still have a huge amount of work to do ahead of us, both in developing our nationwide strategy to offer support to a broad cross-section of the creative industries, and in communicating what we are doing to the very people we are seeking to support. I am confident Paul will make a great contribution to our work in both of these areas and look forward to working closely with him in the future.'

This article was first published on prweek.com