Audrey Nelson Director of Corporate Communications
Audrey is a seasoned communications professional with extensive experience of working at the most senior levels in the public and private sectors
Her early career was as a policy adviser in the DHSS and OFT. Her passions for politics and the media came together when she was subsequently seconded to the DTI press team in the late 1980s - to manage the complexities of a Financial Services Bill - and a permanent move to the Government Communications Service soon followed.
She dealt with City and consumer issues as well as international trade when she was at the DTI, and after a stint in the Number 10 press office, during the Thatcher years, she moved to the Home Office. From devising and executing the media handling of all of the big miscarriages of justice cases to flagship bills and the crisis management of major prison escapes and riots, her crisis management skills became particularly well honed. But it was her involvement in private sector contracts and close links with leading business figures that led to Audrey's move to the CBI.
After years of advising senior minsters, she was recruited by Adair Turner in 1998 and has since provided strategic and tactical advice to a fascinating clutch of director-generals and presidents, helping to establish the CBI's reputation in the UK and overseas as the UK's premier business lobbying organisation and the "come-to" place for business comment.
Audrey also manages the commercial arm of the CBI's business and has the privilege of working in close partnership with some of the UK's leading blue-chip companies.
