Rod Clayton is based in London where he is Head of Issues and Crisis Communications for the EMEA. In fourteen years with the company, Rod has dealt with a wide variety of complex situations for many, diverse clients, ranging from global product recalls to major disasters.
Industries in which Rod has experience include technology, energy, healthcare, consumer products, food and beverage, entertainment, publishing, defence, heavy industry, finance and transportation, among others. Matters that he handles typically include government enforcement actions, major litigation (especially intellectual property, competition, fraud and international disputes), natural and man-made disasters, environmental, health and safety issues, bankruptcies and restructurings, M&A (including proxy battles), board disputes, management changes, industrial action (including strikes, unionization campaigns and plant closures), product recalls, product liability and market exits, to name a few. In these and other contexts, he has dealt with a wide range of high profile, hostile print and television investigative stories.
Increasingly, companies are making efforts to be as ready as possible for issues and crises in advance of their happening. To that end, Rod leads the research and development of crisis communications plans and runs crisis simulation exercises to test the efficacy of those plans after they have been created.
Rod also has considerable experience training CEOs and other major figures who need to be able to answer tough questions not only from the media, but also in legislative committees, depositions, shareholder meetings and other challenging situations.
Prior to transferring to London, Rod worked in the company’s Los Angeles office for almost nine years, where he was the lead for corporate issues assignments on the West Coast and, latterly, General Manager of Weber Shandwick’s Southern California operations. He spent three years beforehand in the company’s New York office working on corporate issues. Despite his long sojourn in the United States, Rod was born and raised in Suffolk, England. He was educated at the University of Oxford, where he studied classics for his undergraduate degree before taking a doctorate in modern history.