Married to the job….

A decade ago or more ago, PR was a different game. It was extravagant, glamorous, budgets were big, the people were young and beautiful. It wasn’t like the process-driven, regulation-restricted, measurement-obsessed, more-for-less dull-fest that PR’s become today.

Even the dry world of Tech PR indulged in the excesses of the time. And one company in particular seemed to exemplify the mood: Text 100.

In the late 90s, Text 100 was the undisputed leader in UK tech PR; a 120-person strong hotbed of thrusting consultants with money to burn. Back then, the Microsoft UK PR fee alone was more than £4m a year. And when you put 100-plus twenty-somethings in a room together with a lot of Champagne, egged on by the fun-loving Mark Adams, things are going to happen…

There were, of course, liaisons aplenty. Some lasting (literally) a few short seconds…but others have stood the test of time. Has one small company ever produced so many married couples? Remind us of any we’ve missed, but here are the ones that we can recall…

Clive Armitage (now CEO of Bite) and Ruth Bradshaw (now full-time mum)

Justin Hayward (now head of technology & telecoms at MS&L) and Lisa Murray (now head of communications at the South East England Development Agency)

Stuart Handley (now communications director at Chariot plc) and Judy Osborn (managing director of Purple Rabbit PR)

Katie Kemp (now Executive Vice President at Waggener Estrom in the US) and Richard Topping (now…umm…ghost writer of Kenny Everett’s sidekick Cleo Roccos’ autobiography and…er…one time TV presenter and…umm…house husband?)

Steve Loynes (now Edelman Associate Director) and Pippa Tordoff (HR at RBS)

Reuben Milne (now managing director of Spark Creativity) and Dawn Isaac (now mum and Chelsea medal-winning landscape gardener)

Mark Pinsent (now freelance consultant) and Michelle Carney (now full-time mum)

Matthew Ravden (still involved in the Next Fifteen Group and soon-to-be-published author) and Sophie Brooks (now PR consultant…ex-managing director of AUGUST.ONE)

David Reeks (now a PR and analyst recruitment consultant) and Jenny Robson (mum to be)

James Warren (now Weber Shandwick, of course) and Heather Malley (now part-time consultant, we think, but mostly full-time mum)

And soon to join the clan, the newly engaged Bruce McLachlan (now an account director at Nelson Bostock) and Laura Manley (now at Consolidated Communications)