Introducing PRINZ Central Committee Member Miranda Richardson

Kia ora koutou,

Ko Miranda Richardson tōku ingoa.

Nō Ingarangi a Airangi ōku tīpuna.

Kei te noho au ki Whanganui-a-Tara.

I’ve been a public relations professional since 2006 (which seems astonishing when I write it down).

I followed an unconventional route into PR, starting off life as a professional AV and theatre practitioner, and moving into events management. This helped form a very strong basis for my PR career as all my theatre and conferencing experience was focused on story-telling, connecting people and fostering learning and better understanding.

I fell into the world of PR  in 2006 when I was living in London and landed a job as the Internal Communications Manager for a major train operating company. We had 2,400 employees based at over 100 locations, serving more than 150,000 customers a day. Over the eight years I was there, I fell in love with comms and worked hard to connect our teams better, get their feedback on how we could improve as a company and help everyone understand how they contributed to our success. It was hard (and we weathered the GFC whilst I was there) but a great deal of fun.

I returned to New Zealand after 10 years overseas and have been working for NZ property development and investment company Willis Bond in marketing and communications roles since my return, and am now the Corporate Marketing Manager. I absolutely love my job, my colleagues and my company and how we strive to build high quality, resilient, sustainable buildings that help communities thrive. My role is very varied and I get to practice many different aspects of PR including media relations, investor relations, stakeholder relations, internal communications and marketing.

I’ve worked in-house for private sector organisations (that work closely with the public sector) all my career. Wanting to connect with professionals from other sectors and validate my knowledge were key drivers behind deciding to do my APR, which I completed in 2021. I found the course highly rewarding; it has helped me forge strong connections with the wider PR community, continue my professional development, and validate the knowledge I’ve gained over the past 17 years. I would thorougly recommend it to anyone wanting to continue their PR learning journey. I’ve also helped to judge the annual PRINZ awards for the last two years, am a member of the PRINZ Central Committee, and am acting as an APR mentor this year.