Stephen Waddington

Stephen is the founder and managing partner of Wadds Inc, a professional advisory firm for creative agencies, communication teams, and tool vendors.  He's an entrepreneur who has benefited from disruption in media and technology during his career in public relations. He built an agency during the 90s supporting companies, creating the infrastructure and applications that were the foundation of the Internet. He did it again ten years later, scaling one of the first agencies to work across paid, social, and earned media. He also served as Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum.  Along the way, Stephen has written ten books and served as President of the CIPR. He founded the CIPR AI in PR panel in 2018 and has supported the CIPR in this area for the past five years. He was a Visiting Professor in Practice at Newcastle University for ten years until 2021.  Stephen is also a PhD researcher at Leeds Business School, studying the relationship between public relations and management.