What's your story?

Clients say

​

Heidi Yu Spurrell

Founder and CEO of Future Green Global, MSc, PGDip, BEM 

 

With a truly global perspective, Lise recognises the challenges and opportunities which are unique to Asia Pacific, and how they relate to emerging consumer expectations, regulation, scientific progress, and litigation in the global context. 

 

In the role of technical expert to our consultancy business, she has delivered thorough reports, analysis and insights on highly complex commercial and risk-based topics.

 

She combines a fine appreciation of industry drivers, academic insights, policy, law, media perception, and citizen activism to propose transformative, yet reasonable and prudent steps toward sustainable business practices.

 

I recommend Lise’s work in particular on the emerging business provision for climate-led risk analyses of commodities. She also supports us with development, content and delivery for bespoke sustainability training. 

 

She delivered comprehensive training to Future Green Global’s team on holistic sustainability metrics and their intersecting categories, as defined by the OmniAction community of experts. We have adapted this learning and now train clients in systems thinking and the OmniAction approach to sustainability. 

 

Lise works effectively across multiple time zones. She is attuned to the diversity of cultures within our region. And she works congenially across our elaborate spectrum of clients and their supply chain networks.

​

Leticija Petrovic

City Food Policy Lead, The Food Foundation, UK

 

Lise fulfilled a project for Birmingham City Council, on behalf of The Food Foundation, connected to that city's Food Revolution plans. 

 

This involved a complex analysis of sustainability food labels, certifications and schemes in the UK, combining a survey and desk research with direct outreach to key actors from each of the 27 schemes in our extensive remit. 

 

Comprehensive data points about each scheme were captured into a framework. A weighted scoring system was devised to help Birmingham’s citizens and small businesses to judge the quality and trustworthiness of credentials.

 

Lise also wrote a 6,000-word document "Labels as a Guide To Kickstart Birmingham’s Food Revolution” for an audience of citizens and small business owners, introducing the subject of sustainability in food choices and explaining the multi-criteria categories of sustainability. 

​

In particular, it empowers citizens and small businesses to ask for meaningful data, which will help to drive sustainable business practices as well as consumer choices. 

 

Although the guide cites academic research throughout, it is written so as to be accessible, informative and empowering for Birmingham’s citizens. 

 

She engaged respected members of OmniAction’s expert global community to review the guide, providing us with the assurance that this work reflected OmniAction’s North Star approach to agrifood sustainability across nutritional, social and environmental impacts. 

 

Lise’s expertise in food sustainability helped with the first phase of creating a comprehensive framework which has a huge potential to provide valuable insights into different food label terms, certifications, and standards in the UK that cater to various consumer priorities. Her engagement style is very collegial and agile, and she has helped reiterate several versions of the deliverable to ensure that the final product is fit for purpose. 

​

Gehan Talwatte 

Non Executive Chairman OAG, Ishka, Lloyd’s List Intelligence, Idwal; Adviser RightSpend; formerly: Non Executive Chairman AgriBriefing, SkillDynamics; Non Executive Deputy Chairman Anthesis Group; Adviser Capital Economics; CEO Ascend; MD Hoovers Online

 

I have hired Lise Colyer into a dozen projects over 20 years to lead re-branding of global companies in which I played a key investment and leadership role. 

 

Lise usually delivers the first communications strategy in a rebrand, applying thought leadership and marketing roadmaps. She begins with brand sentiment analysis and a focus on media presence. 

 

Projects have included identifying major industry players and analysing competitive forces. This is followed by proposals to re-define brands, dramatically enhancing value, through strategic re-positioning. Execution includes global, high-profile media campaigns, delivering consistent high-quality positive coverage, fresh websites and marketing materials, and often a calendar of speaker events. 

 

Client companies have included Ascend, from its 2005 spin out of Airclaims, through to its highly successful sale to Reed Elsevier in 2011. The work was so successful that, a couple of sales on, and the brand has been retained. Lise has also worked with OAG, where I am non-executive chairman, and Ishka Aviation Finance which I co-founded. 

 

Non-aviation clients have included Capital Economics, Hoover’s Online Europe, AgriBriefing, SkillDynamics, and RightSpend. I highly recommend her work. 

 

 

Sharon Jackson

Exec Director, One to One Children's Fund UK

Lise is unique in my career-long experience of working with PRs and Communications leaders. She committed to introducing our charity to high quality media titles and then delivered on this. It was enormously impressive to me when, thanks to her methodical approach, we found ourselves speaking to journalists from the BBC, The Economist, Forbes, Newsweek, CNN and Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, among many others. 

 

Her impact on our charity has been profound. 

 

Lise brought strategic vision and tactical impact to our charity. Her natural empathy, genuine interest in the lived experiences of Mentor Mothers and our clients, and her personal commitment to our mission, clearly helped, as she identified our needs and designed activity to meet those needs. As a result, a large new audience was introduced to our work. 

 

Her efforts secured us high profile celebrity endorsement.

 

Our vision is nuanced, and can seem complicated. It addresses maternal and children's rights, life-saving healthcare with a focus on AIDS treatment and prevention, alignment with the art market to help deliver our mission, and nurturing the relationship between London-based supporters and our work in remote South Africa. Lise quickly grasped these issues in some depth and was able to explain our work in a way that cut through. 

 

She developed engaging and creative social media content and posted it across our channels daily. Working with developers, she created new website pages. Lise sourced, drafted, edited and secured approvals for compelling e-newsletter and website content. She advised on photography and video permissions and image use. 

 

Lise helped with data management and managing guests. In other words, she was an all-rounder, able to provide vital hands-on support as well as strategic counsel on communications matters. 

 

She is fun to be around, unflappable, a friend to our stakeholders, always on top of her brief, bursting with fresh ideas, and willing to leverage her own extensive network for our benefit. 

​

Vipul Nakum

OAG

Advisor September 2017-January 2018; Chief Product Officer/Investor February 2017-December 2021; Senior Advisor, Strategy and Development/Investor January 2022-July 2023

​

Lise Colyer provided media and communications consultancy over a series of projects spanning 10 months supporting OAG’s evolution, post a management buyout.

 

She delivered strategic counsel and media support on projects including 

• An analysis of media presence.

• Refreshed messaging to support new brand sentiment ambitions.

• An analysis of key media themes, mapped to OAG’s own expertise, with recommendations on how OAG could influence media coverage of these subjects. 

• Thought leadership op-eds, blogs and press releases. 

• Outreach to aviation focussed business media, resulting in articles placed in titles including Bloomberg and City AM.

 

Topics covered were as diverse as new C-suite hires, minimum connection times, a predictive flight delay algorithm, our ambitions in China, and OAG’s 90-year heritage. 

 

Her expertise in aviation issues and attracting the interest of high quality business publications had been established working with Ascend Aviation from its spinout through to its sale to Reed Business Information. I recommend her highly. 

​

Sam Syed

Creative Director, Encyclopaedia Britannica

Lise worked to my creative direction at Encyclopaedia Britannica as we created educational and marketing materials for our large audience. She is impressive at interpreting complex ambitions in a brief, making educational content engaging and snappy, and aligning her text to creative visuals. It’s always great to work with a writer who can be led by a creative brief. Lise is able to take on the whole range of subject matter I present her with. She operates effectively across varying time zones and the difficulties that can present regarding deadlines and meetings. She adopted our approach to style with naturalness, which is strong on diversity, inclusion, equity, and explaining complicated subjects to a range of age groups. She delivers on time and on budget and these are not skills that can always be taken for granted. In addition, she is unflappable, enthusiastic and empathetic. Her constant interest in new ideas and emerging topics is just one of the reasons she is always fun to work with.

​

Daniel Sheriff 

CEO Exile Group, TXF, Uxolo, Kujenga and Proximo; Advisor, Ishka

Lise and Alexi at What's Your Story? have worked on a number of branding projects with us - some of which have not yet launched. The aim has been to design a family of complementary brands that deliver an impact greater than the sum of their individual parts. 

​

The process began with an exercise in which we defined what each brand needed to achieve, before considering brand names that would support this. Lise's approach to naming matches creativity with focus, allowing for the unexpected as well those ideas that were right under our noses. 

​

Having landed on a name, Lise and designer Alexi Vasiliou then work on a visual concept. At the end of each exercise we have a handbook determining brand guidelines, plus full suites of logo shapes and file types, able to be adapted across our many needs, from websites, newsletters and social media profiles, to banners, popups and more. 

​

We find them personable, earnest, flexible and focussed on delivering great work. We began working with What's Your Story? in early 2018. Since then they have supported us with developing our new project finance and infrastructure brand Proximo, launched last year. They re-designed the Tagmydeals logo, enhanced our TXF logo, and worked up a number of new brands. 

​

Each brand helps us attract new audiences to our brand family and to service their niche business requirements, in sectors where skillsets are changing rapidly, as are audience characteristics. 

 

The What's Your Story? team has been able to appreciate the professional landscapes we serve and support us in meeting those changing requirements.

​

Rory Brown

Former CEO AgriBriefing​

What's Your Story? worked with us on a project by project basis from 2016, initially working with the executive team on developing corporate messaging that reflected the new direction our business was taking. This messaging explained to investors, our audiences, and our own teams, who we are and what we do, given our new focus at the time. 

​

Later they worked on developing our new corporate branding and identity, as we became AgriBriefing. They managed the design work, delivery of design variants, and application of the new designs. The news launch and media outreach were also delivered by What's Your Story? And Lise worked on the text and imagery for the new website. 

​

The next step in telling our story was to develop a corporate video. Lise put together a team of camera operators, graphic designers and editor, supported the script development, worked well with our spokespeople, and delivered a product that we're extremely happy with. 

 

We have valued her strategic counsel on communications matters and her genuine interest in our business and our brands. 

​

For us, What's Your Story? has been an all-round provider of Communications services, delivered on time, on budget, and in a respectful, accessible and reassuring manner. Lise has been great to work with all along the way and I would recommend her highly.​

​

Ru Watkins

Former CEO, Noah's Ark Children's Hospice

​Lise of What's Your Story? joined Noah's Ark on a consultancy basis to devise our first ever communications strategy. An initial three-month engagement led to an 18-month+ engagement on a retained basis. 

​

Shortly after Lise joined, we entered a charity partnership with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Lise's ability to identify, manage and deliver complicated, high-profile, national and global media opportunities became invaluable. 

​

She worked between the charity's children and families, and celebrity supporters, and the premier league club's communications team to help deliver monthly high-profile media outputs. These outputs included regular film packages produced ahead of appearances with players, screened at Tottenham matches, shared via social media from the club's website, and disseminated to the news media. 

​

Highlights included a Noah's Ark child joining coach Mauricio Pochettino at a pre-match press conference to launch the charity partnership - used extensively in a Sky Sports news package and featured by most of the national news print and broadcast media. England striker Harry Kane visited a Noah's Ark family for Match of the Day and the Sun newspaper. A Noah's Ark child walked on to the pitch with club captain and French national team captain Hugo Lloris. Kyle Walker visited a school attended by a number of Noah's Ark children. Mousa Dembele got behind the till at one of our charity shops to help out. And legend Ledley King continues to support many of our events. 

​

Another key initiative Lise delivered was a call to action to the building industry, asking for the donation of goods and services to reduce the cost of our hospice build. This included developing a relationship with Irvine Sellar, who built London's Shard, designed by Renzo Piano. 

​

She delivered a new, sustainably priced website for our charity, as well as a bespoke site for our relationship with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Lise created essential strategic procedures and policies, overhauled our print and digital publications schedule, and enhanced our social media activity. 

​

She provided media training to support us in delivering new key messages. 

​

Her flexible approach incorporated weekend and evening activities. Her ongoing loyalty and support is greatly appreciated.

​​

Andrew Pavord

Founder and director at FilmFixer, Apply4 Tech, LocationFinder.ai and Screen Suffolk lead
Lise joined us on a retained consultancy basis in 2013, at a time when our company was expanding significantly.

​

Her communications plan was designed firstly to help us talk about ourselves, as the company came to terms with its own rapid change. But also, to deliver the needs of our clients, attract and retain clients, help attract film productions into our locations, and support our efforts to ensure sustainability in a rapidly growing sector.

 

Our marketing requirements are complex and continue to increase as our company grows. Lise’s coherent approach has flexed and adapted as needed to ensure we are better known, better liked and better understood in our business sector, on an ongoing basis.

​

Through good planning, strong relationships, and a genuine interest in our business, Lise continues to meet our many priorities. She is a trusted representative for us at many levels, from unemployed young people we are helping to train, to journalists across the news spectrum, clients and prospects.

​

For us, her greatest value is in the proactive media programme she runs, delivering us and our clients positive publicity on a weekly basis. Her delivery programme also includes website content, social media output, e-newsletter development and delivery, running surveys, and conference support. She steps in with photography and filming when needed as well.

  

Paul Sheridan

Leader Aviation Finance Advisory Services, PwC Ireland, Former CEO at Accipiter Holdings

I worked with Lise to raise Ascend's profile as both experts in aviation and aircraft finance and as the owners of the best data in the industry.

 

Because of the global nature of the aviation business, this required work in all parts of the world to respond to local events and present ideas affecting the industry as a whole. Lise did a fantastic job in securing print and film coverage for Ascend in all of the major media outlets including the Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg as well as local trade and general media in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

​

She planned campaigns well and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to execute them. Through this process, she created lasting relationships between Ascend and the various media sources making Ascend's experts first on the call list when major aviation stories break.

​

A sample of cuttings related to this endorsement: 

 

​

Aircraft leasing - Buy or rent? | Business | The Economist

21 Jan 2012 - Paul Sheridan of Ascend, an aviation consultancy, reckons that of the world's top four owners of airliners, two are lessors: GECAS, with 1,732 ...

 

Airlines struggle to secure jet financing | Financial Times

25 Mar 2012 - Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of consultancy in Asia, said airlines were likely to follow lessors in making greater use of the bond markets to pay ...

​

Narrow-body sales dominate aircraft orders | Financial Times

21 Jul 2010 - Each day has seen a pile of new aircraft orders that the two industry groups ... “ Airlines are still a little bit bruised,” said Paul Sheridan, Ascend's ...

​

Airbus green light for A320 engine offer | Financial Times

1 Dec 2010 - “It is hard to find too many people in the banking and finance world who think the NEO is a good idea,” said Paul Sheridan of the Ascend ...

​

Funding shortfall puts aircraft orders at risk | Financial Times

18 Dec 2011 - Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory at Ascend, another aviation consultancy, says Chinese and Japanese banks, including ICBC and Bank of ...

 

Boeing in research tie-up with China's Comac | Financial Times

6 Mar 2012 - Paul Sheridan, head of consultancy in Asia for Ascend, an advisory firm, said: “ This collaboration between Boeing and Comac can be seen as ...

 

Boeing, DAE in Cancellation Talks - WSJ

8 Jul 2011 - Ascend Worldwide's head of risk advisory Paul Sheridan said the ... of its orders on four other occasions in the past year," Mr. Sheridan said.

​

Should Mexicana's Airplane Leasing Firms Be Worried? - The ...

4 Aug 2010 - Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory, EMEA at Ascend Worldwide tells me that of the ... Independent of The Wall Street Journal newsroom.

​

Jet-Leasing Firms Go on Buying Spree - Wall Street Journal

23 Dec 2010 - "Lessors have gone from just being a source of airplanes to being a source of financing," says Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of risk advisory in ...

 

Airbus to Update A320 With New Engines and Wings - The ...

1 Dec 2010 - ... does not represent a major financial risk for Airbus or its parent company, ... in allocating engineering and manufacturing resources at a time when it is ... is a good idea,” said Paul Sheridan, head of European risk at Ascend, ...

​

Airbus A320 engines to get 1bn-euro upgrade - BBC News

1 Dec 2010 - ... C919," said Paul Sheridan, aviation analyst with Ascend Worldwide. ... step change in economics and operating costs," according to Ascend.

 

Aerospace finance key to new orders - BBC News

20 Jul 2010 - But at the same time, he warned that ever tighter budget constraints meant ... to Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory at Ascend, an aerospace ...

 

Boeing's 747-400, a Faded Queen of the Skies - Bloomberg

21 Jun 2012 - “There's not a lot of demand for the 747,” says Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of consultancy Asia. “They're mostly being broken up for parts.”.

​

Cashed-up Chinese aircraft lessors spread their wings - Reuters

12 Dec 2012 - International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC), the aviation arm of U.S. ... Paul Sheridan, chief Asia consultant for specialist aviation think-tank Ascend. ... ( Buying ILFC) will help Chinese airlines to get more aircraft,” Ascend's Sheridan said. ... from $8 billion today and to $12-13 billion in five years time,” he said.

​

Sanjay Sarathy

Chief Marketing Officer at Sumo Logic 

Lise did a great job for us when Vindicia chose to enter the UK market. We needed a team that could quickly understand our unique needs in the subscription billing market and Lise, as part of the Tannissan Mae team, was able to create significant coverage for us in a short period of time as we broke into the market. 

 

We obtained coverage in high-profile publications like CNBC and The Guardian as well as in specific, niche publications like RealBusiness and Fourth Source, and were able to create visibility for ourselves through speaking opportunities via the Guardian's Changing Media Summit. Lise's energy level, attention to detail and understanding of the market was a huge asset.

​

Robert Nisbet

Partner at 5654 & Company

I worked with Lise, when she was Corporate Communications Manager at Southwark Council, and I was a Special Correspondent for BBC TV News. She asked me to speak to her staff in the press office about how to deal with journalists on breaking news stories.

 

It was clear from the outset that she was hugely respected by her colleagues. Lise is adept at enthusing and inspiring people - I would say she is clearly a people person. She also understands the business from both sides of the fence: what journalists require to do their jobs and their constraints, while understanding how to inject her client's message into their coverage. I have no hesitation in recommending her to any potential client.

 

Rohit Jaggi

Financial Times

​Lise played a key role in setting up a sophisticated infographic on the FT's website dedicated to business aviation, marshalling resources to make it happen. The result, which is still live and updated fortnightly, continues to be a huge success both for the FT and for Lise's client.

​

​