Burway

Stakeholder Engagement
Specializing in Private Markets

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About.

Burway is an independent Communications and Integrated Marketing consultancy.

Burway crafts and delivers communications and brand strategies to shape, grow and protect reputations.

Our advice provides a competitive edge in raising capital, originating opportunities, attracting talent, creating value and building stakeholder trust.

Services

We work with our clients to create

A recognised, relevant, respected and resonant brand

Delivering the right message through the right channel at the right time

To influence the opinions and decisions of the right people.

Communications

Media Relations

Corporate Communications

M&A Communications

Investor Relations

Issues & Crisis

Media Training

Stakeholder Mapping

Fractional CCOs

Marketing

Thought Leadership

Content Creation

Digital Marketing

Presentation Training

Fundraising Advisory

Conference and AGM Support

Fractional CMOs

Brand

Brand Strategy and Implementation

Messaging

Design and Creative

Visual Identity

Benchmarking

Fractional CMOs

Meet our senior team.

John Thompson

Managing Partner

Lara Budgen

Partner, Head of Operations

John Thompson is the Founder and Managing Partner at Burway. John has nearly two decades experience providing advice to investors, corporates, governments and individuals.

Before founding Burway, John was the Global Head of Communications for Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure. At Actis he oversaw communications strategy for over US$ 10 billion of capital raising and advised on M&A and portfolio company activity across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. He was also responsible for delivering a brand evolution for the firm to reflect its strategic direction and worked with Actis' world-class Sustainability team to launch an open-source Impact Measurement framework.

Prior to joining Actis, John’s background was working within leading global consultancies including Edelman, Fleishman Hillard and Bell Pottinger. He also spent two years as an entrepreneur in Sub-Saharan Africa as a journalist, publisher, and consultant.

John is part of the steering committee of Private Equity International’s Marketing, Investor Relations and Communications Forum, he is a judge on PR Moment’s inaugural ESG awards panel and an alumnus of the Milken Institute’s Young Leaders Circle.

Lara Budgen is Head of Operations with over 22 years of experience in financial services particularly working for Single Family Offices and private markets. She leads operations at Burway and handles stakeholder engagement, project management, and fractional resourcing.

Her career began at Bloomberg, followed by a role at a start-up wealth management firm. She later became Head of Marketing and Investor Relations at a commercial real estate firm and then led operations for the London arm of a family office followed by taking on a role of Director at Institutional Investor. Over this period, she built a vast network of Single and Multi Family Offices.

Lara has consulted for Single Family Offices and held the role of Director of Principal Investments at a Portuguese NPL and real estate business. She most recently worked in a strategy role with an Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure company.

Currently, Lara serves on the Management Committee for a Single Family Office. She holds an Investment Management Certificate (IMC).

Outside of work, Lara is passionate about the countryside, horses, skiing, and tennis.

Senior Advisors

Unparalleled experience

Senior Advisor

Maureen O'Toole

Maureen O'Toole is an expert in financial markets with a unique 30+ year specialization in alternative investments product development and sales. Most recently she was a Managing Director heading institutional sales in the US at Actis, a global investor in sustainable infrastructure. Maureen previously held Managing Director roles at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, involving management of sales teams across the fullest range of alternative investments, from daily liquidity hedge funds to private equity.

She has led educational efforts to explain the unique characteristics of alternative investments, for both clients and their financial advisors, at several institutions. Maureen received her Masters degree in Finance from Kellogg University and holds the CAIA accreditation.

Senior Advisor

Grant Clelland

Grant Clelland is a Senior Advisor to Burway and leads our content offering. Grant is a highly-experienced business and financial content writer and editor, with top-level experience in print, online and TV journalism - including more than a decade at the BBC.

He began his career on a local newspaper, before moving to the BBC, where he worked for 12 years. In his final role there, he was editorially responsible for the corporation’s business, financial and economics coverage on the main TV and Radio news bulletins. He then moved to Hong Kong, where he was Business Editor of South-East Asia’s leading English language newspaper, the South China Morning Post.

He then returned to the UK to become Associate Editor of The Business, a newspaper then run by Andrew Neil. He then moved to become deputy editor, and then editor, of Financial News, a newspaper and website focusing on institutional finance such as investment banking, fund management and private equity.

Subsequent to that he moved into public relations, where he was senior director in the Corporate and Financial practice at Edelman, the world’s largest PR company. He left Edelman in 2020, and now concentrates on corporate and financial copywriting.

US Affiliate

Roger Fisk

Roger Fisk is a Senior Advisor and US affiliate for Burway, based in Washington DC. He is a global communications and marketing strategist who played a key role in President Barack Obama’s electoral victories in 2008 and 2012. Since then, Fisk has applied these tools to private sector clients worldwide, including insurance companies in Asia, European cities bidding for global sporting events, and Fortune 100 companies.

Fisk has a deep understanding of 21st-century presidential politics, political campaigning, and the power of information and marketing. He helps clients engage millions through sustained marketing strategies, using the internet, social media, radio, TV, and newspapers.

During Obama’s campaigns, Fisk was Director of Special Events, coordinating media coverage for over 150 events and managing key Obama media appearances. After the first campaign, he served as Cabinet Liaison for the 2009 inauguration and became a political appointee, leading trade and diplomatic missions. In 2012, he joined Obama’s re-election team, leading teams in critical states.

Before this, Fisk was Senior Aide to Senator John Kerry.

On Brand...