Hanover hires ex-BT Michael Prescott as group MD

Michael Prescott, the former director of corporate affairs at BT, has joined Hanover in the newly-created role of group managing director, corporate and political strategy.

Prescott will provide senior counsel to Hanover’s global digital, healthcare, retail, energy and financial services clients, and will work closely with Gavin Megaw, MD corporate and brand, and Laura Swire, MD of the UK advocacy team.

During his seven years at FTSE 30 telecoms giant BT, Prescott helped deliver favourable media coverage for BT’s move into sports rights and broadcasting.

He managed issues including the transition from CEO Lord Livingston to his successor Gavin Patterson, and was part of the team which secured approval from the competition and markets authority (CMA) for BT’s acquisition of EE with no remedies.

Prior to joining BT, Prescott was managing director, corporate communications and public affairs at Weber Shandwick, where he oversaw growth in the division’s revenues and a broadening of its client base, which included Virgin Media, Balfour Beatty, British Nuclear Fuels, MasterCard and IKEA.

He had a successful career in journalism before moving to consultancy, serving for 10 years as chief political correspondent and political editor at The Sunday Times.

Hanover CEO Charles Lewington said: “I cannot think of a communications professional with a more impressive track record of providing brilliant counsel at CEO and chairman level, both in-house and agency. Mike is a fantastic client handler and a shrewd analyst of media and political trends in our rapidly changing post-truth environment.”

Prescott said: “I am delighted to be joining Hanover. To say the agency has great momentum would be an understatement.”

Hanover’s blue chip client roster includes Shire, Airbus, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Lucozade Ribena Suntory and the UK brewing industry.