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PR People

Our People

Our collective way of thinking, extensive PR experience, diversity and integrity are what makes us uniquely Porter Novelli. 

Our people are a special combination of talent…

Porter Transformer

When you work with us, we don’t just become your trusted advisors, we become an extension of your team.

Porter Transformer

We have deep connections across media, business and the public sector as well as the right skills to nurture partnerships that benefit everyone.

Porter Transformer

We’re a creative bunch of people with a never-ending supply of smart, innovative ideas that reach the right people and outcomes for you.

Porter Transformer

We’re straight-up and gutsy, advocating what’s right over what’s easy. We’re also a calm, experienced set of hands under pressure when you need it. 

Porter Transformer

We also know our way around business and whatever we do, our work is designed to make yours even better – for good.

Porter Transformer

We love what we do and also have a lot of fun along the way.

So let’s introduce ourselves…

Louise Wright

Managing Director

Brad Pogson

Group Account Director

Sophie Coley

Account DIRECTOR

Courtney Stayte

Account Director

Estelle Dippie

Account Executive

Adrienne Sutton

Executive Assistant

Verity McQuade

Financial Controller

Let's Talk

Our actions speak even louder than our words. Talk to us today about how we can tell your story - for good.
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Louise Wright – Managing Director

Louise Wright is an award-winning senior practitioner with a reputation for providing shrewd strategic advice, as well as offering creative solutions, to help organisations grow and thrive.

She lives and breathes the Porter Novelli values of winning with integrity, being gutsy, having your back, and enjoying the ride.

With extensive leadership experience, she brings a cool head in a crisis, helping clients through some of the most challenging times they have faced. Louise’s career began in news journalism, followed by magazines where she headed the biggest consumer titles in New Zealand, before moving to PR.

She believes great story telling is essential for all compelling PR campaigns and is renowned for inspiring her clients to take this approach. She has an enviable contacts book and prides herself on her connections with journalists, TV producers, editors, lawyers, agents and sports personalities.

Committed to helping the next generation of communications professionals succeed, she’s a Women in MEDIA mentor and also a mentor for PRINZ. She has a BA in English literature and History, and a Diploma in Journalism.

In her spare time, she’s a school netball coach, and fundraiser for kids’ sports and up at 5am in the rowing season driving her daughter’s squad to training. She collects NZ art and loves hanging out with her not-for-profits: James and Millie.

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Brad Pogson - Group Account Director

Group Account Director Brad Pogson is a senior PR consultant with 10 years’ experience split across agency and in-house teams. He’s worked with and for some of the world’s biggest and most exciting technology brands – and that’s where he’s found his passion. 

With a knack for connecting the dots between stakeholder interests, Brad brings specialist consultancy that combines industry knowledge and social awareness with communication excellence. 

Brad has returned to Porter Novelli after a stint running his own successful business and with four years experience in top London agencies. 

While in the UK, Brad led communications strategy, content and events for Canon’s Professional Imaging business across Europe, Middle East and Africa and managed the in-bound press office for BT, the UK’s largest mobile and broadband provider. 

Prior to this Brad was a consultant on brands including Microsoft and worked in-house with Vodafone in both internal and external communications roles. 

Highly networked and a natural connector of people and ideas, Brad sees the bigger picture and helps clients deliver communications that have a lasting impact. 

Outside the nine to five, Brad is a self-proclaimed ‘cool’ uncle, he’s completing a Certificate in New Zealand Wine (yes, it’s a real thing) and is quietly working on a project to bring Aotearoa’s queer communities together. He lives in Muriwai and has accidentally become a bird watcher well ahead of time. 

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Sophie Coley – Account Director

Originally from the UK, Sophie has worked across consumer, business and corporate communications. She is committed to building long-lasting relationships and achieving exceptional results for her clients.

Whether its strategising, handling a crisis or putting a creative hat on, Sophie loves getting her teeth into new and exciting projects. Since making the move to New Zealand, she has worked with some of the largest Kiwi brands and has broad experience across FMCG, retail, telecommunications, finance, automotive and not-for-profit sectors.

As a keen traveller, Sophie enjoys spending her free time exploring new locations and the beautiful scenery around the country. Most weekends are taken up with a road trip, or even a ferry trip across to Waiheke to sip on some of New Zealand’s best wines.

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Courtney Stayte - Account Director

Award-winning account director Courtney has wide-ranging experience in PR and is a detail-orientated, media savvy, results driven professional. 

She has a background in both corporate and consumer communications, and has worked across a range of sectors including FMCG, retail, utility, insurance, entertainment, health and beauty, fashion, travel and finance, in Europe and New Zealand.

From building relationships with clients and learning more about their business to help tell a story or solve a problem, to bringing brands to life via traditional and digital platforms, Courtney thrives on the variation that PR brings – no two days are the same.

Courtney has recently returned from the UK where she worked at fellow Omnicom PR agency, Ketchum, for two years’, gaining experience on multiple health and beauty brands that are part of the multinational consumer goods corporation, Procter and Gamble. She is highly skilled in leading integrated campaigns involving multiple stakeholders.

In her spare time, Courtney loves to check out the latest culinary hotspots, whether it’s a Saturday market or an undiscovered cafe, travel far and wide to find the ultimate scenic spot and tick off her bucket list and spend quality time with family and friends.

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Estelle Dippie – Account Executive

Born and raised in Dunedin, Estelle is a driven communications professional committed to delivering successful campaigns that challenge standard thinking and help a brand stand out from the crowd.

After graduating from the University of Otago with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts, Estelle used her business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit to set up her own fashion distribution business (and passion project) in Auckland.

Her experience lies in consumer communications, with particular focus on the fashion and lifestyle industries. It is this experience that has led Estelle to establish strong relationships with both lifestyle media and influencers across New Zealand.

Sticking to the Porter Novelli mantra, Estelle understands the importance of utilising the art of communication for good, helping to shape brand stories into strategies that have a strong impact where it matters most.

A people person at heart and a born-storyteller, Estelle thrives on building meaningful relationships to develop communications that engage and inspire an audience.

Outside of work, Estelle can be found escaping the city for a weekend away at the beach, dropping into a gym class or catching up with friends over a glass of wine and delicious food. 

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Adrienne Sutton – Executive Assistant

Adrienne has worked in PR for over 16 years as Executive Assistant at two large agencies to several high-profile CEOs.  She has also worked in events, sales, marketing, recruitment, project management, events and advertising. A skilled project and events management practitioner, from building relocations, environmental and diversity accreditations, business conferences and large events plus the day-to-day running of the office.

She has proven herself as a safe pair of hands from the smallest of details to important confidential client business. Her attention to detail is second-to-none and no stone is left unturned when she is on the team.

Adrienne is a keen volunteer at local clubs and school, plus socialising with friends and family, she enjoys walking the dog and relaxing at home during her downtime.

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Verity McQuade – Finance Director

A qualified Chartered Accountant, Verity has worked in the advertising industry for over 10 years, at both an operational agency level as well as corporate governance and compliance.

Verity has a wealth of experience under her belt having worked for the Clemenger Group for more than a decade. She has a passion for helping agencies thrive and succeed under strong financial management and guidance.

There’s nothing Verity loves more than escaping to her second home in beautiful Rarotonga to read and relax, while soaking up the island air. While in Auckland she spends her weekends enjoying the best coffee the city has to offer, hunting out delicious cafes and spending time with her two rambunctious young boys. 

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James Walker – Sustainability Consultant

Having previously held sustainability leadership roles in central government and the private sector, James works with the Porter Novelli team to offer strategic counsel to clients. 

James has worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry for the Environment. Between the two, he worked in the high-octane world of retail grocery at Woolworths Group in both Australia and New Zealand.

At Countdown his team led the demise of plastic bags. When he moved to the Ministry for the Environment, he led the work on the government ban too. Today, he lives in fear of being caught at check-out without a reusable.

James has been involved in leading innovative sustainability initiatives and communications programmes – for example, New Zealand’s first workplace transgender transitioning policy, the establishment of an online foodbank, the development of the government’s Plastic Packaging Declaration, the public consultation on the Zero Carbon Bill and the launch of The Aoteaora Circle.

He’s also very resourceful. James has undertaken Antarctic survival training with the Royal New Zealand Air Force and, with no notice, cooked a four-course dinner for Helen Clark in an ambassador’s kitchen when the chef fell ill. She was polite about it.

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Rhiannon Hughes – Account Manager

Rhiannon has several years’ experience in the PR industry, having worked in a handful of Auckland PR agencies.

She’s worked across sustainable lifestyle brands, namely the beauty, health, and food sectors and has helped to successfully launch multiple skincare and cosmetic brands into the New Zealand market.

More recently, she has enjoyed getting stuck in to the corporate and business sectors and developing communications strategies that deliver impactful results. Her PR experience also spans the not-for-profit sectors and how best to deliver impressive results with limited resources.

Over the past few years, she’s made strong connections across lifestyle media and influencers and prides herself on strong written communication. She has a passion for event management and a sound knowledge of social media.

Outside of work, you can find Rhiannon with her family at Papamoa or out socialising with friends. She’s also partial to a cup of earl grey and a thrilling novel.

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Anna-Louise Hoffmann – Senior Account Director

Working at some of the most respected agencies in New Zealand and the UK, Anna-Louise is a jack-of-all trades when it comes to her communications expertise.
Whether it’s managing large-scale consumer campaigns, developing corporate communications strategies, supporting clients through crises, or overseeing creative activations, it’s all in a day’s work. 

Nothing motivates Anna-Louise more than taking on new challenges. Learning about different industries and coming up with strategies and creative solutions to solve problems and help clients succeed is what drives her – though some may argue it’s the endless supply of treats hidden in the Porter Novelli cupboards. 

Not one to sit still for long and always looking for challenges outside the workplace, Anna-Louise is a keen equestrienne – a passion she has followed since she was young.

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Adam Szentes – Senior Account Executive

Adam has a diverse range of communications experience, from premium consumer campaigns to corporate communication and sustainability programmes.

He has worked with organisations across a variety of sectors including finance, government, retail, transport, infrastructure and technology.

A lover of language and storytelling, with a passion for social issues, Adam is skilled at interpreting brand messaging into ideas and content that resonates with a wide range of audiences and media.

He has a drive to use communication for good, creating a positive impact for both his clients and communities. Adam has a keen interest in illuminating issues and stories that have been relatively untold and helping broker meaningful partnerships.

Adam’s love of language extends beyond his professional life. On Tuesday nights, you’ll find him at German classes.

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