THE CAMBRIDGE NETWORK - TALKING HEADS - MATT TAPP

Date: 31/05/01
High profile partner joins Cambridge media consultancy


Media consultancy Talking Heads has recruited Cambridgeshire Police's corporate communications head Matt Tapp.

He joins the Cambridge-based firm as managing partner with specific responsibility for expanding its public sector client base.

Experienced consultant Mike Robinson will continue to head up the private sector media and presentation training while Tapp moves the business into new areas.

Talking Heads delivers media management consultancy and training, either in-house at its fully equipped TV and radio studio, or on-site. With presentation and message delivery expertise, it will now also expand into crisis management and specialist PR.

Tapp, 38, was persuaded to move into the business arena after a long and successful career in news journalism and police public relations.

For the last four years he has co-directed the national police press officer training programme and delivered lectures throughout Britain on media management, multi-agency response, risk and crisis management.

He is a serving member of the Home Office Counter Terrorist team, advising UK and overseas law enforcement agencies on the media aspects of terrorist incidents.

During his career Tapp has been asked to review the media handling of major incidents by a number of Police forces and is currently assisting in the review of the investigation into the murder of black musician Michael Menson in the Metropolitan Police area.

He joins Talking Heads after seven years as Director of Corporate Information at Cambridgeshire Police.

'After such a high profile job in a progressive police force like Cambridgeshire it was always going to take a dynamic, forward-thinking and exciting company to make me change tack,' said Tapp.

'Talking Heads is already well established with the private sector in the East Anglia region and has blue chip clients like WorldCom and Arthur Andersen under its belt; but the other partners felt I could put my considerable experience in the public sector to use as a consultant.

'I'm looking forward to the challenge.'

Tapp trained as a journalist in Sussex and moved on to news editing three evening newspapers in the Midlands before joining Warwickshire Police as its force press officer in 1992.

During his time there he dealt with the M40 minibus crash, cases of kidnap and product contamination and more than 30 murder inquiries before moving to Cambridgeshire in 1994.

In the last seven years he's dealt with a range of high profile national incidents including the IRA jailbreak from HMP Whitemoor, the Rikki Neave murder, the runaway foster family and the jailing of a police sergeant for a series of rapes.

Last year he was awarded a Chief Constable's commendation for his handling of the Bramley case.

Talking Heads was started in 1999 as part of the Mason's News Group, which runs one of Britain's biggest press and television agencies from its Cambridge headquarters.

Group Managing Partner Dave Moreau said: 'We're absolutely delighted to be able to offer our clients someone with Matt's experience in such a wide range of public sector issues.

'I've got no doubt the heads of private firms will also benefit from his strategic thinking on news management and how to deal with a potential public crisis.'

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Contact: Matt Tapp on 01223 568222 or 07900 408 032, or Dave Moreau on 01223 568222 or 0788 764 58.

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